This week, Sony Pictures gave us our first look at Morbius, starring Jared Leto.
As you probably know, Sony owns the film rights to Spider-Man. But with those rights include literally hundreds of other characters. And, by God, Sony isn’t going to let those rights sit around. Even if they’re the rights to Morbius the Living Vampire.
Like many others, I had one question when I heard about the upcoming Morbius movie: Why?
With this trailer, I think we have an answer.
You might not remember this, but Universal Pictures rebooted The Mummy in 2017. They hoped to start a “dark universe,” basically copying the Marvel Cinematic Universe model with classic Universal monsters.
It didn’t go well.
But it was a cool idea, right? A combined cinematic universe of monsters and anti-heroes?
And it’s still a cool idea. And it’s exactly what Sony is doing.
This trailer tells me that Morbius will follow close in the aesthetic footsteps its predecessor, Venom. We have a B-movie action/horror premise, combined with an early-2000s color palette, somehow populated with Oscar-caliber actors.
Dare I say it, Sony is doing what Universal couldn’t. They’re mining the Spider-Man rogues gallery for their own “dark universe” of monstrous anti-heroes. And I’m kind of on board.
This trailer mostly devotes itself to the basic themes of the story. We get a good chunk of the origin story and a hint at the central dilemma: How far will the doctor go for the cure? In a way, it’s the basic anti-hero question: how far is too far in seeking justice?
And you’ve probably heard this movie has ties to the MCU. After Venom, most of us assumed that these Sony/Marvel spinoffs would steer clear of the MCU. But alas, there’s Bird Man himself (because even Marvel’s trailers have post-credits scenes).
We also glimpse a poster of Spider-Man in the background of one shot, but notably not MCU Spider-Man. As others have pointed out, it’s a snapshot from the Marvel’s Spider-Man video game. But in that snapshot, Spider-Man is wearing his costume from the Sam Raimi films. It’s basically the entire Spider-Verse in a single still.
So will this film be great? Almost certainly not. Will it be totally extra? Will it be fun? Will it be horrific? Will it be comicbooky? Almost definitely.
And if, several films down the line, we get an insane Sony/Marvel monster-hero team-up? I’m there.
Anyway, here’s Morbius, haunting a theater near you on July 31:
