As usual, San Deigo Comic-Con came with plenty of surprises, but the one which got me during the Marvel Studios' panel was the announcement of a BLADE reboot starring Mahershala Ali (True Detective), making the vampire hunter an official part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is going to be crazy. Now, we're still a ways off from the BLADE reboot as Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has said that the film won't be a part of Marvel's Phase 4, likely pushing it to Phase 5, but that doesn't mean that we can't do a little casting of our own while we wait.
With Mahershala Ali already playing the title role, we'll turn our attention to Deacon Frost, one of the vampire hunter's original villains who also faced off against Wesley Snipes in the first BLADE movie. Played by Stephen Dorff, Deacon Frost sought to join with the vampire blood-god La Magra and allow vampires to take their place over humans as the dominant species on Earth. Frost also happened to the vampire who attacked Blade's mother while she was pregnant and inadvertently turned Blade into the half-human/half-vampire killing machine he would become. Frost was also the recipient of what has become one of Blade's most quotable lines, "Some motherf**kers are always trying to ice-skate uphill." Classic.
Deacon Frost first appeared in Tomb of Dracula #13, just several issues after Blade's own debut. Unlike the younger incarnation seen in the BLADE film, Frost is a middle-aged vampire who was originally a human scientist looking to unlock the secret to immortality. After accidentally injecting himself with the blood of a vampire, Frost became one himself, but with the unusual ability of being able to create a doppelgänger of each person he turned into a vampire. Little odd, but Frost intended on using this ability to overthrow Dracula as Lord of Vampires, before he was ultimately defeated by Blade and Hannibal King. As for the next big-screen BLADE outing, I'd love to see Marvel take Deacon Frost somewhere darker than we've seen before; Give me something strange, something which will freak audiences out.
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe grows larger, it's starting to become a little more difficult to make a list of actors who don't have any association with the massive franchise. There were several instances where I thought that I'd made a suitable choice for the Deacon Frost role, only to remember that they'd previously made appearances in the MCU. Oh, the problems of a massively successful franchise. As usual, I'll toss out a few suggestions to get you started. Calm and collected, yet bristling with a seductive bloodthirstiness just below the surface, I've always thought that Viggo Mortensen (GREEN BOOK) would make for an excellent vampire. Another actor who would make a great addition to the realm of the undead is Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders). For my final choice, I'm going to twist my own rule a bit by suggesting Barry Keoghan (Chernobyl), a wonderful young actor who blew me away in THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER with his eerie performance. Unfortunately, there had been talk of Keoghan joining the cast of Marvel's THE ETERNALS, but as that's not 100% official at the moment, I'm going to let him slide.
Remember, you're free to suggest anyone in the comments, so let your inner casting director run wild!
Previously on Cast This, you were asked to fill the roles of Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Scorpion, and Liu Kang for the upcoming MORTAL KOMBAT movie. We've seen several roles officially cast for the film in the days since the column was first posted, including Mehcad Brooks as Jackson "Jax" Briggs, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Sisi Stringer as Mileena, and Ludi Lin as Liu Kang. As there wasn't a huge response to this particular Cast This column, I'll just lay out top pick for each role: Channing Tatum as Johnny Cage, Vanessa Kirby as Sonya Blade, Ludi Lin (good pick, Luke319!) as Liu Kang, and Iko Uwais as Scorpion.