Following the initial1998 hit Blade, the 2002 sequel Blade 2 went on to achieve even greater box office success. Blade: Trinity brings back the Daywalker Blade to face the greatest challenge of his vampire-fighting career.
David S. Goyer, who has written the screenplays for all three films in the Blade franchise and also takes on the role of director for Blade: Trinity, offers his take on the continuing success of the series and why audiences so enthusiastically keep coming back for more.
“The Blade films have always had a certain kind of artistic integrity. They're true to themselves. They're dark and often unremitting. The first movie came at a time when people were used to seeing more polished superhero films, more polished films in general. People were ready to see something that was a little grittier, a little more in your face. The Blade films are also very stylish in their own way. They've been very influential with regards to other films and certainly plenty of television shows.”
As for Goyer’s own fascination in continuing to write about the Blade character, he confides that he is entranced by characters that are more or less at war with themselves. “I'm always drawn to antiheroes. And within the realm of the Marvel Comics-based films and comic book movies in general, Blade is about as dark a character as they get. He is a hero in spite of himself, but he's a conflicted hero and not even a particularly nice guy.”
“In the same way that Clint Eastwood's character in Unforgiven is a very conflicted character,” Goyer continues, “Blade is also forced into a position where he ends up doing something for the benefit of humanity, but humanity doesn't really care about the fact that he helped them out. I always find those kind of characters interesting.”
For the latest chapter, Goyer has created two interweaving story lines, both of them presenting serious obstacles for Blade to overcome.
“The first is that the vampires have decided to out Blade and they've effectively framed him so that the FBI and the local police are also hunting him, actually doing the vampires’ work for them,” says Goyer. “When the FBI eventually capture Blade, he's forced to accept the help of Hannibal King and Abigail Whistler, who are members of another vampire hunting organization called the Nightstalkers. And they become Blade’s new allies for the third film.”
“At the same time,” continues Goyer, “what the vampires are trying to do is resurrect the king of the vampires, the progenitor of the vampire race, a character called Drake, who has been around for about seven thousand years. He's the character who has spawned the Dracula myths. But he's a much older character than that, and he is able to exist in daylight, like Blade. The vampires are bringing him back because they hope that through his genetic imprint, they can make themselves immune to sunlight. The notion is that over the last seven thousand years, the vampire bloodline is not as pure as they believe it to be. The reason they've lost the ability to go out in the sun is because they have crossbred with humans.”
Movie Database
In Theaters
