How Blade: Trinity Could Have Been Like A Will Smith Classic

A new version of Blade might be on the way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe starring Mahershala Ali, but the original trilogy starring Wesley Snipes still holds up. By the time "Blade: Trinity" came around in 2004, the series wasn't quite as popular as it had once been, and although critics slammed it, the film has become something of a guilty pleasure for audiences over the years due to its campy tone and over-the-top action sequences.

The film paired Snipes up with Jessica Biel's Abigail Whistler and Ryan Reynolds' Hannibal King, as the titular daywalker works with their group, the Nightstalkers, to bring down Dracula himself. "Prison Break" star Dominic Purcell stars as the legendary vampire. His plan is to wipe both humans and vampires from the face of the Earth. Stopping an immortal monster from killing everything on the planet? Sounds like a typical Monday for Blade.

But according to an old interview with "Blade: Trinity" writer, producer, and director David Goyer — the trilogy-capper almost wound up using the plot from a fan-favorite Will Smith film.

When speaking to Coming Soon on the set of "Blade: Trinity" back in 2004, David Goyer opened up about his original story outline for the threequel, explaining that it would've featured a huge time-jump after the events of "Blade II." Since Blade himself ages at a reduced rate, the story would've shifted ahead forty years into a future where vampires have taken over the world as the dominant species — placing humans in camps that serve as larders. Interestingly, he compares the storyline to the "I Am Legend" story, originally written by Richard Matheson in 1954.

"Originally, we had this idea of doing the third film set in the future, much more of an I Am Legend scenario, and we were actually going to have it take place forty years in the future and since Blade is half vampire, he doesn't age as fast and they've shifted the paradigm and humans are in concentration camps and they put these particulates in the air so that there's only two hours of sunlight a day, and that was all really cool, but then I felt like part of the fun of Blade is that it had been set in the real world, so I changed my mind and decided to do this instead."

Matheson's book follows sole survivor Robert Neville as he lives in a world ravaged by a vampiric virus. A popular 2007 film adaptation stars Will Smith in the titular role. Obviously, "Blade: Trinity" would've added its own unique spin on that story, as these vampires are a little more put together than the rampaging monsters in "I Am Legend."