Wesley Snipes has been the star of numerous action blockbusters, including the Blade trilogy. He’s a true martial arts master, but why don’t we see him in the theater anymore? In this video I’ll talk about his martial arts background, break down his action films and explain why we don’t see him in the theaters anymore.
It’s generally reported that Wesley Snipes has been training in martial arts since the age of 12, earning a 5th dan black belt in Shotokan Karate and 2nd dan black belt in Hapkido. He has also trained in Brazilian Capoeira and a number of other disciplines including kung fu at the USA Shaolin Temple, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Kickboxing. Physique wise, he’s around 5’9” and 180 pounds. So that puts him right up there with Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Wesley Snipes grew up on the streets of the South Bronx in New York City, where he very early decided that dance and the theatre were to be his career. This also inspired his martial arts training. He attended the High School for the Performing Arts and his acting talent would secure him a scholarship at Purchase College in Harrison New York, where he would graduate with a Bachelor degree in fine arts. Wesley Snipes started acting in the mid 1980s, with a few parts in soap operas and nighttime dramas, peppered in between critical acclaim performances on Broadway. His film career really started taking off in 1989 though, with his supporting role as Willie Mays Hayes in the film Major League. Shortly after, in 1991 we’d see him as a leading man in New Jack City.
1992 would see the release of Wesley Snipe’s first straight-up action film, Passenger 57. Not only did Passenger 57 have good action, it was also a good showcase for Wesley Snipes martial arts skills. Earlier in his career, Wesley Snipes auditioned for the leading role of Leroy Green in 1985s Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon. He’d follow up with 2 more action hits in 1993. Rising Sun with Sean Connery, this was based on a novel by Michael Crichton. He’d follow that up with Demolition Man, opposite Sylvester Stallone. In 1994 he would drop, Drop Zone. The following year in 1995 we’d see Money Train, now this movie was a lot of fun, he teamed up with Woody Harrelson again, whom he previously teamed up with in White Men Can’t Jump, and the love interest in the film is Jennifer Lopez.
A few years after this, in 1998 we’d see the full showcase of his martial arts talent in Blade where he played a half vampire / half human hybrid. The development of the film goes all the way back to 1992, when LL Cool J was interested in playing the lead role. According to screenwriter Goyer, New Line eventually wanted to make Blade into “something that was almost a spoof”, until he convinced them otherwise. The executives at New Line felt there were only 3 actors who could possibly play the role. Wesley Snipes, Denzel Washington and Laurence Fishburne. After failing to get a Black Panther film into production, in 1996 Wesley Snipes signed on to star as Blade, a choice that writer David S Goyer thought was perfect.
In August of 2014, Snipes spoke about his desire to return to the franchise saying “I’d be open to it. I think we’ve got some stones left unturned and there’s some latitude left for us to build on and I’d love to get back in the suit again and do some things I’ve learned how to do now that I didn’t know how to do then”.
In July of 2019 during Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con presentations, Marvel Studios announced a Blade reboot that would star Mahershala Ali, which Wesley Snipes has given his blessing. After the commercial success of Blade and having received his star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, Snipes was on truly top.
Unfortunately the start of the 21st century would prove to be the beginning of the end for his theatrical success. 2000’s The Art of War, a Snipes-produced U.N. thriller in which he also starred, proved to be a massive failure, both critically and commercially. Wesley Snipes would follow this up 2 years later with 2004’s Blade Trinity. Blade Trinity was just a troubled production overall, the worst film in the series and ended up pretty much ensuring no major studios would want to work with Wesley Snipes again, due to the fact that he filed a lawsuit against New Line Cinema and the filmmakers to the tune of $5 million dollars. There were of course several straight to video films that would see release, as his name is still big enough to slap on the box of a DVD and get enough interest. one notable one was 2011’s Game of Death, which I want to bring up since he fought martial arts sensation Gary Daniels in that one.
Wesley Snipes said, "Doing movies was cool but it still wasn't fulfilling what I wanted to do-even to this day," Snipes told ABC News. "If I have a choice between doing a movie or doing a dance show, I'll do the dance show first. … I have more martial artist friends and dancer friends than I do acting friends."