Beckinsale’s new film Jolt premiered on the 3rd of June, and is another high-octane action thriller, swapping the blood sucking undead for a bold and colorful visual direction. The actress spoke about her hopes for the Underworld franchise on the marketing trail for the new flick, but this isn’t the first time she mentioned the crossover idea.
Back in 2016 when the fifth and possibly last Underworld movie came out, Beckinsale already spoke about her hopes for a Blade franchise crossover with leading actor Wesley Snipes. This isn’t just a wild idea either - actual plans for such a film existed, but Marvel intends to incorporate the Blade character into the MCU and thus turned away from the opportunity. While Underworld itself isn’t a Marvel property, co-creator Kevin Grievoux revealed that he did base Beckinsale’s character Selene on a Marvel character, thus it would have been a good fit for a crossover with Marvel’s Blade. The two stylish, violent vampire action franchises were arguably at their peak around the same time, so a crossover movie would definitely have been a hit. Blade wasn’t the only other franchise considered for a crossover, as the idea of Underworld being mixed up with the Resident Evil movie series was also floated. Similarly, nothing really came of it - though Underworld seems like a better fit with the setting of the game, Resident Evil VIII anyway. While the possibility of an Underworld-Blade crossover is no longer on the menu, the very future of the Underworld franchise is in question. In 2017 following the release of Underworld: Blood Wars, Len Wiseman stated that a seventh film with Beckinsale was happening - later the actress denied returning to the series, and no news of any further Underworld films has been heard since. Blade hasn’t debuted in the MCU yet, but it’s only a matter of time.
