Jared Leto Will Play ‘Morbius’ In Spider-Man Spin-Off Movie
Sony’s Spider-Verse continues to weave its web.Jared Letowill star inMorbius, a Spider-Man spin-off about antihero Morbius the Living Vampire.Daniel Espinosa, the director ofLife, will helm the film, with a script from the duo behind Netflix’sLost in Spacereboot.
Sony is hell-bent on making their “Spider-Verse” (or whatever it’s actually called) work. While they struck a deal with Marvel to bring Spider-Man into the MCU, Sony still owns most Spider-Man-related characters. This year they haveVenom, featuring Tom Hardy and his big CGI tongue, hitting theaters. And nowTHRsays they’re plowing ahead with aMorbiusmovie. Jared Leto, who has already appeared in the DCEU as the Joker, will play the the title character.
Leto’s character, Dr. Michael Morbius, is a Nobel Prize winning biochemist who, according to theMarvel wiki, suffers from “debilitating blood disease and developed an experimental treatment involving vampire bats and electroshocks. Its side effects turned him into a pseudo-vampire who needed to consume blood in order to survive, and gained typical vampire characteristics such as an aversion to sunlight, and the powers of flight, enhanced strength, speed, and healing (a healing factor). His overall appearance changed as well: he gained fangs, his nose flattened to appear more bat-like, and his skin became extremely pale. Additionally, the victims of his bite would turn into living vampires themselves.”
The character first appeared in the pages ofAmazing Spider-Manin 1971. Morbius started out as a villain, but over the years, the character evolved into more of an antihero (like Venom). And now Sony wants to put Morbius on the big screen! Why? You’d have to ask them! I don’t want to be overly negative here, but I can’t imagine who this movie is for. Is anyone clamoring for a Morbius movie starring Jared Leto? Other than Jared Leto, I mean.
Sony has been trying to get their Spider-Man-based cinematic universe off the ground for several years now. After Sony rebootedSpider-ManwithThe Amazing Spider-ManandThe Amazing Spider-Man 2, the plan was to launch several spinoffs, including aSinister 6movie. Things haven’t going according to plan, though. Since then, Sony struck their big Marvel deal to bring Spidey into the MCU. And yet, no one seems to be clear on what Sony’s Spider-Verse is.Venomwill not feature Tom Holland’s Spider-Man/Peter Parker, and it’s unclear if the character will appear inMorbiusas well. Are all of Sony’s live-action Spider-Verse movies going to be void of Spider-Man? So far, the only Spider-Verse film to feature Spidey is the animatedSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
In any case,Morbiuswill be directed by Daniel Espinosa, the filmmaker behindSafe HouseandLife(a movie that many thought was going to be a secretVenom-prequel, but wasn’t).Burk SharplessandMatt Sazama, the showrunners of Netflix’sLost in Spacereboot, will write the script.
