The superhero film Michael Jackson was desperate to star in

The R-rated superhero movie Michael Jackson was desperate to star in was 'Blade II,' and he even asked his old 'Bad' co-star Wesley Snipes about it.

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(Credit: Alamy)

Film » Cutting Room Floor

Sat 15 March 2025 21:45, UK

Imagining Michael Jackson appearing in a blockbuster superhero movie at the height of his fame is something too bizarre and amazing to comprehend. After all, Jackson was one of the most recognisable celebrities in history, so the idea of him trying to disappear into a character in a superhero universe is borderline farcical. However, according to the badass star of one of the most successful R-rated comic book movie franchises, Jackson did indeed pitch himself for a part – although the actor thought he was joking.

This story doesn’t begin in a boardroom at a major film studio or the offices of a comic book powerhouse. Instead, it traces back to a music video set. By the 1980s, Michael Jackson had redefined the music video as an art form, crafting ambitious, cinematic productions often led by top Hollywood directors. The most iconic of these was 1983’s Thriller, directed by An American Werewolf in London’s John Landis, while 1986’s Captain EO, a 17-minute theme park spectacle, was helmed by The Godfather’s Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Star Wars creator George Lucas.

With ‘Bad’, though, Jackson wanted to outdo the previous videos. So, he enlisted the directing talents of Martin Scorsese, who was fresh off helming Tom Cruise and Paul Newman in The Colour of Money. The resulting 18-minute West Side Story-esque dance extravaganza went ridiculously over budget and schedule, with Scorsese admitting, “It was two and a half weeks of the dance sequence alone. I was mesmerised by it. The video monitor made us all dancers.”

In the end, though, none of this mattered because the resulting clip was widely hailed as one of the most iconic videos ever.

For the video, Scorsese cast a young, unknown actor to play Jackson’s opposite number from a rival dance gang. The star-in-the-making was Wesley Snipes, who expected to be on set for a week – before the shoot ballooned into a six-week marathon. He loved every moment, though, telling Billboard, “You had three masters that were trying to create something that hadn’t been done. You had Quincy Jones [the song’s producer], the great Michael Jackson, and then Martin Scorsese, collaborating on this new form of creative expression.”

Snipes struck up a lasting friendship with Jackson, who he referred to as the “Grandmaster”, on the ‘Bad’ set. At one point, he revealed that the King of Pop told him how impressed he was with his acting and that he should consider taking it up as a profession. A confused Snipes replied, “Mike, what are you talking about?” It turned out Jackson thought Snipes was a street dancer the production had found and not a trained actor who attended the High School of Performing Arts in New York City. An amused Snipes exclaimed, “I was like, ‘Dude, I’m not a gangbanger. I’m an actor!'”

That hilarious misunderstanding must have endeared the two men to each other because they were still in contact 15 years later. By this point, Snipes had become one of Hollywood’s most bankable action stars and was preparing to shoot the second instalment of his vampiric Marvel Comics adaptation Blade. The first movie had been a huge hit – arguably giving birth to the modern superhero industrial complex – and the sequel was expected to be even bigger. To Snipes’ shock, though, Jackson wanted in.

“Michael actually asked me if he could be in Blade II,” Snipes claimed. “The great Michael wanted to be in one of the Blade movies, to be a tough guy. I was like, ‘Mike, which one you gonna do? You wanna play one of the vampires?’ He was like, ‘No! I wanna be like Blade’s friend. I wanna fight with you.'”

Snipes laughed off Jackson’s request, though, assuming he was joking. To his shock, Jackson insisted, “No, I’m serious,” but it ultimately didn’t come to pass.

As Snipes chuckled, “It’s very hard to imagine how people would have managed seeing Michael Jackson in the Blade movie. I don’t know.” Interestingly, though, Jackson was definitely serious about wanting to flex his acting muscles during that period because the same year that Blade II was released, he appeared in a cameo as himself in another big-budget sequel: Men in Black II.

Related Topics

BladeMIchael JacksonWesley Snipes

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