Marvel Rivalshas quickly garnered a huge following since its release this past December. This can be attributed to the game’s dynamic PVP gameplay and the development team’s quick responses to player feedback. But another major draw forMarvel Rivalsis its roster, which is filled with unique adaptations of some of Marvel’s most popular characters.
WithMarvel Rivals' Season 2right around the corner, two new characters are already confirmed to be joining the game: Emma Frost and Ultron. Fans are already excited to see both of these classic characters join the fray — especially since they will bring some more variety to the Vanguard and Strategist categories. Unfortunately,Marvel Rivals' Season 2 announcements continued a streak of bad luck for one of its most anticipated characters.
Blade’s Disappointing Absence From Marvel Rivals Season 2
Marvel Rivalsstarted off its season-based live service strong with the current season, Eternal Night Falls. The vampire-themed season introduced Dracula as its main villain. In order to stop his nefarious plot, players can equip their characters with gothic outfits from the seasonal battle pass and take to the moonlit streets of multiple new maps set in New York City. When it came to new characters for this season, anyone who knows anything about the Marvel universe had an immediate guess as to who would be added: Blade.
Blade is an immensely popular character — due in part to Wesley Snipes' take on the character in theBladefilm trilogy — and is Marvel’s most prominent vampire hunter. However,Marvel Rivalsinstead added each member of The Fantastic Four to the game. While it was great to get four new characters in one season, many players were left stumped by Blade’s exclusion from the season. The narrative explanation was that Blade had been captured by Dracula and was being held prisoner on the Central Park map. Players theorized that perhaps Blade would become a playable character once the season ended and Dracula was defeated, but that was debunked onceEmma Frostand Ultron were revealed to be Season 2’s new characters.
This isn’t to say that Blade won’t ever become a playable character inMarvel Rivals.Several leakshave already suggested that he will be added to the roster eventually, and it would be odd to ignore someone like Blade who already has an in-game character model and played a part in Season 1’s lore. However, recent news regarding Blade makes waiting longer for his addition to the game especially painful.
Blade’s Slow Death in the MCU
In 2019, it was officially announced by Marvel that Blade would be getting his own movie in the MCU. The movie would star Mahershala Ali and expand the supernatural side of the MCU. Unfortunately for fans of the character, the movie then went into development hell. After Marvel Studios cycled through multiple directors and writing teams,Bladesaw delay after delay until it was eventually removed from Marvel’s release schedule altogether last year. This past week, matters were made even worse when rumors began circulating thatBladehad been quietly canceled.
The timing ofBlade’s potential cancelation has made his absence fromMarvel Rivals' promotional material for Season 2 especially rough. Fans of the character just can’t seem to catch a break outside the comics. Like Wesley Snipes said inDeadpool & Wolverine, maybe there really will only ever be one Blade. Fingers crossed for Arkane Studios’Bladegame, as for the time being, it seems like he won’t be playable inMarvel Rivals.
