Wesley Snipes Breaks Guinness World Record for Longest Career as a Live-Action Marvel Character

He started it all!

Nearly 26 years ago, Wesley Snipes debuted in the 1998 hit film Blade, quite literally paving the way for the Marvel Universe. The half-vampire “daywalker” who hunts vampires was a hit with fans, kicking off a series of Blade movies, with Snipes appearing in the last one, Blade: Trinity, 20 years ago. Now Snipes has reprised his role, with a cameo in the new Deadpool & Wolverine film, making history as the official title holder for longest career as a live-action Marvel character, Deadline reports.

Guinness World Records confirmed Snipes’ record-breaking feat, the 61-year-old beating our Hugh Jackman for the title, with Jackman first appearing as Wolverine in X-Men 24 years ago. Snipes’ return to the screen as Eric Brooks, aka Blade, comes 25 years 340 days after his first appearance, also earning him a record for the longest gap between character appearances in Marvel films, last playing Blade 19 years 231 days ago.

Snipes admitted that he didn’t think he would ever return as Blade, particularly after the reboot was confirmed in 2019 with Mahershala Ali taking his place. He credits his Blade: Trinity co-star Ryan Reynolds with helping to make the Deadpool & Wolverine cameo happen.

“I didn’t think he would be able to pull it off. I didn’t think that Marvel was into it. Disney was into it. And also because they had Mahershala, you know, cast for the next upcoming version of it. So, it didn’t make sense to me,” said Snipes.

But it did happen, and Reynolds said it was only right to pay homage to the originator.