Actor's Age in Comic Book Movies, Paramount Deal In Trouble

Aug 23, 2024

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The topic of an actor’s age and comic-book characters they could play has been coming up a lot recently. Mahershala Ali was 45 when they announced they were going to do a Blade film with him. He’s now 50 and there’s still no signs of when or if that movie will go into production. Is it too late for him to START a superhero franchise at 50?

With Deadpool and Wolverine came the discussion around Wesley Snipes, who returned as Blade, and if he should be given another opportunity to play the character (Ryan Reynolds certainly thinks so). But he’s 12 years OLDER than Ali is at 62. Even if they were to green-light such a project, at the earliest it would go into production in a couple of years which would mean a 64 year old Snipes as the Day Walker again.

Robert Downy Jr. is 59, but the conversation doesn’t really apply to him since he’s been a part of the MCU for over 16 years now. Same is true of the 75 year old Samuel L Jackson.

For context, Hugh Jackman played “Old Man” Logan but he was just 48 when the movie came out.

There is an example now of an actor who effectively and believably return to the cape at a much older age. Michael Keaton as Batman in the FLASH movie. Think about this: Keaton was 70 when that movie came out and never once in that movie (regardless of what you thought about the movie as a whole) did I ever feel a sense of “unbelievability” watching Keaton kick ass as Batman again. Obviously there was probably a stun man in the cowl during the heavier action pieces, but it felt so natural and smooth that as an audience member I never once thought about it during the movie itself.

So could/should someone like Wesley Snipes return? I’m still not sure. Is Mahershala Ali now too Old to START playing Blade? I think the window is still open… for now. But Keaton does make me question how old is TOO old in the genre. ~John