The idea of a Blade television series has been floating around for a while. Last I’d heard it was full steam ahead and, aside from the total absence of Wesley Snipes, very little information was available. Well, it seems that the progress has gone much further than I’d anticipated and Blade: The Series is set to premiere on SpikeTV this month.

Usually when a movie franchise makes the leap to television (or visa-versa) the loss of a primary performer is considered a bad thing, although it doesn’t always work out that way in the long run (Buffy anyone?). However, in the case of Blade, I can’t help but think that anyone, yes even DJ Qualls, would be a greater asset to the Blade character than Snipes.

Yeah, that’s right! I said it! Snipes (IMO) was the worst thing about the Blade movies. I just didn’t buy him as the solitary, too cool for school, vampire slayer. Honestly, he just came across as a jerk. Sure, a jerk who could kick my ass (and yours) five ways from Sunday, but that usually isn’t the kind of thing that makes a character appeal to me.

While the cast of Blade: The Series seems to be reasonably solid; Kirk Jones, aka Sticky Fingaz (Clockers, Flight of the Phoenix) as Blade, Jill Wagner (Monk), Nelson Lee (Oz, Traffic: The Miniseries), Neil Jackson (Stargate SG-1) and Melbourne lass Jessica Gower (Neighbours, Blue Heelers, The Secret Life of Us, and every other shit show on Australian television!), it’s actually the people behind the scenes that instill in me some faith that this show may actually work.

Executive producer and co-writer on the series is David S. Goyer, best known for penning the Blade movies and the brilliant Batman Begins. Also given a co-writer credit is comic book writer Geoff Johns (The Avengers, JSA, The Flash, Teen Titans, Hawkman, and Green Lantern: Rebirth). The series premiere is directed by Peter O’Fallon, who worked on the fantastic series American Gothic.

In the end, I think that the most exciting thing about this series is that it is coming from SpikeTV and is a completely unknown quantity as a result. Have they gotten out of the way and let the people who know the characters the better than anyone else create the best Blade adaptation possible? Only time will tell. [source]