Kate Beckinsale Reveals Marvel Crossover With Major Franchise
Kate Beckinsale wants to do a major crossover within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it makes a ton of sense for one of her characters.
Could we see Kate Beckinsale enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe? The actress sure would like to see it happen. The recent news is that she’s still incredibly interested in having Selene Gallio have a crossover appearance or movie with the folks from the Blade franchise. While that isn’t actively in development right now, Variety has it that Beckinsale would love the chance at the opportunity to join forces with another vampire hunter on the big screen in some fashion.
Now, Kate Beckinsale is quick to admit in her interview with Variety that this is unlikely to happen. For starters, there are no plans to reboot Underworld right now within the Marvel Universe or anywhere else. So that part of the crossover would die right there. But the actress said it had also been floated that she could somehow enter the new Blade reboot that’s coming to Marvel. On that front, she says the studio is probably looking for a full reset there and doesn’t want to bring in the stories from the past.
One could see why Kate Beckinsale would want to get back into the leather and get to work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For starters, with that studio bringing all of their available properties into either film or series form, it’s just a great working opportunity. But there’s also a significant history here as well. Beckinsale played Selene through five movies in the original Underworld franchise. Starting with the titular film and then following with Evolution, Rise of the Lycans, Awakening, and Blood Wars the franchise had more than a decade run on the big screen.
The Kate Beckinsale franchise had a solid box office run through those films, turning in around half a billion dollars on just about $200 million in budget costs. Not an overwhelming amount, but commercially viable for sure. That’s because despite some lackluster critical responses (average 25% on Rotten Tomatoes) the audience score rated consistently higher across the board. This series has a following for sure.
And while Kate Beckinsale doesn’t seem to have a place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe right now, the studio is committed to another vampire hunter with a Blade reboot. Mahershala Ali has been cast as the lead in that film which will be part of the MCU’s Phase 5. It’s still in active development with relative newcomer Bassam Tariq just signing on to helm the first film in the inevitable series. It’s an exciting new prospect for the character who rose to fame with the Wesley Snipes version back in the early 2000s.
As for Kate Beckinsale, while a Marvel role in a return to Underworld isn’t likely to happen, she’s set to star in another action movie coming this week. Jolt will be released on Amazon Prime and tells the story of Beckinsale’s character who keeps herself in check by electroshocking herself into submission. This keeps her violent tendencies at bay. The movie will be about what happens when she stops the practice and lets it all fly. So while Beckinsale isn’t going to be taking down vampires in the short term she will be kicking plenty of butts anyway.
