Sony has finally pulled the black and red satin cape off their Morbius movie, the latest Spider-Man spinoff in their arsenal. Morbius stars Jared Leto as Michael Morbius, a scientist with a rare blood disorder who, in his quest for a cure, ends up with vampiric abilities. Morbius, the Living Vampire has long straddled the line between villain and antihero in Marvel Comics (much like the subject of Sony’s first and wildly successful Spider-Man spinoff, Venom) and the first trailer for the movie makes it seem like that’s the route Sony is taking here, as well.
See for yourself with this trailer…
So, like we saw with Venom, any hope that director Daniel Espinosa (Life) and screenwriters Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway would take this into straight horror or hard-R territory are pretty quickly dashed. You can see some of the general dark PG-13 aesthetic of Venom here, but hey, that movie cruised to over $800 million, so why mess with success. But that’s not the story, nor is Jared Leto’s buff superhero body, or even the perfectly comics accurate “full Morbius” look he sports in one of the last shots in the trailer.
Here’s the first…
The other point, though, should evaporate any little nitpicks you have about which version of Spider-Man exists in this universe…
Despite the co-financing deal for Spider-Man himself, 2018’s Venom movie appeared to be a standalone film, unconnected to Tom Holland’s adventures in the webs. Sony and Marvel had to renegotiate their Spider-Man custody in 2019, and the studios came to a more agreeable arrangement for both. Perhaps in the course of those negotiations there was something about Sony using elements of MCU continuity in their various spinoff productions. If handled right, this could be a win for fans. And there’s little doubt that Sony would love nothing more than to eventually allow Tom Holland’s Spidey to square off against Tom Hardy’s Venom in a sequel down the road. Morbius could be the first testing ground for the wider implications of the Marvel/Sony deal.
Morbius opens on July 31, 2020. The next Sony/Marvel Spider-Man movie collaboration opens on July 16, 2021. Venom 2 doesn’t have an official release date just yet, but Sony still has Oct. 2, 2020 reserved for a Spidey spinoff, although they’d have to get moving pretty quickly. We’ll keep you posted on both as more information arrives.
Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.
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