Twenty years ago, the Wesley Snipes-led “Blade” effectively kicked off the current superhero movie trend with the first and still underappreciated 1998 film from director Stephen Norrington. That was followed by Guillermo del Toro’s less lore-heavy sequel that some appreciated even more, and David Goyer’s not well received “Blade: Trinity” in 2004.

Marvel Studios scored back the rights to the character a few years ago, but haven’t made any apparent progress on doing anything with them. Snipes though is convinced a fourth instalment will happen and will see him reprising the role. Speaking with VICE recently, Snipes said:

“There are a lot of conversations going around right now and we’re very blessed to have the enthusiasm and interest in something coming from that world. We’ve created two projects that fit perfectly into this world and, when people see them, I think they’re only going to have a problem with deciding which one they love the most.”

Snipes goes on to indicate he’s actually met with Marvel Studios:

“All the main execs [at Marvel] and my team, we’ve been discussing for the past two years. Everyone’s enthusiastic about it, everybody gets it. But they got a business to run and they gotta square the things that they gotta figure out before they can get to it, I guess. In the meantime, we got a business to run and our own slate of things to do so. But the next time you see something in [Blade], mark my words: What we did before is child’s play compared to what we can do now.”

Despite Snipes’ comments, the chances are seemingly very slim of another “Blade” film in the near future – certainly it wouldn’t fit in with Disney’s family audience mandate, but something for a streaming service certainly could have potential. The three previous films earned in the $130-155 million range each at the global box-office.