The living vampire has dawned upon us! Jared Leto will be playing the title character in Sony’s upcoming film, Morbius. The character will be making his first appearance on the big screen in January of 2022. The film will be loosely based on his origin story adapted to our modern-day society. Morbius is directed by Daniel Espinosa and features a cast of Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, and Tyrese Gibson.
Morbius is a popular friend and foe to Spider-Man, first appearing in “The Amazing Spider-Man” issue #101 released in October of 1971. Morbius became the living vampire when he researched bat science that could cure his rare blood disease. However, it all goes wrong when the cure turns him into a vampire. The character of Dr. Michael Morbius appeared on the small screen before, in the 1994 “Spider-Man” television show, playing a villain in season two. Morbius also appeared in the 2012 “The Ultimate Spider-Man” television show playing a villain in season four.
Fans received their second official Morbius trailer on November 2nd, 2021. The movie has had a rocky ride, originally set to be released in the summer of 2020 until the pandemic pushed back filming and production. As of now, the movie will be in theaters on January 28th, 2022. With this being the next Spider-Man villain to receive a solo movie, the first being Venom (2018), it seems that Sony Pictures is going to create some sort of a cinematic universe of Marvel characters they own the rights to. Currently, another movie Sony has planned to release is about the character Kraven the Hunter. Perhaps all the live-action Spider-Man characters will be part of the same universe hinting at a future team-up, although this is not yet confirmed by Sony.
For ages, Morbius has been a very unique character to the Marvel universe because the vampire aspect of his story is completely different from a superpowered hero/villain. Another part of his story that sets him apart from other villains is the fact that Dr. Micheal Morbius wanted to find a cure to his disease but went too far. This film will hopefully feature a good amount of his background to make Morbius a household name.
Make sure to check out Morbius in theaters in January 2022!
Sources:
The Scroll 