Morbius is the latest piece of the Spider-Man cinematic universe puzzle that Sony has been trying to fit into place for the audience. The trailer for the film released a month ago, and with filming already wrapped, and post-production for the feature on schedule, the movie looks to be on track for its July 31 debut. In the meantime, the comic con poster for Morbuis dropped recently online to give fans something to chew on while they wait.
The poster is a close up of lead actor Jared Leto, who plays the role of medical researcher Michael Morbius. Searching for a way to cure his lifelong physical affliction of having a rare blood disorder, Morbius’s search leads him to a species of bats whose genes may hide the key to curing the diseases.
Testing the cure on his own body gives Morbius perfect health, but the cure soon devolves int a curse, as Morbius finds his body undergoing a horrific transformation, and he is overtaken by an overwhelming need to consume blood as a modern-day vampire.
The poster hints at this transformation as a sliver of the face of Morbius looks to have been peeled away, revealing the monster beneath. The movie look of Morbius as a vampire is suitably creepy. You have the red, predatory eye, the graying skin, and those dangerous fangs coming out of his mouth, ready to suck the life out of his victims.
One of the points that drew praise for Venom was the look of the anti-hero lead character, and it looks like Sony has taken great pains to make sure Morbius looks just as much of a badass as Venom. Comparisons between the two characters are going to be inevitable, since they both belong to the same cinematic universe, and both bear the distinction of starting out as supporting anti-hero characters from the Spider-Man mythology before getting their own standalone features with A-list actors in the lead.
For Jared Leto, playing Morbius is a comeback of sorts after his less-than warmly received take on The Joker for DC’s Suicide Squad. In fact, fans of the actor, who are used to seeming Leto in more indie, off-beat films, were surprised to know he had accepted the role of Morbius, after the poor reception to his last movie where he played a comic book character.
Hopefully, with Morbius, Leto will be able to finally nail a comic book role in a well-received movie, in much the same way as Ben Affleck moved on from Daredevil to Batman, or Ryan Reynolds moved on from Green Lantern to Deadpool. There is also the added excitement of Morbius being touted as the gateway to introducing Spider-Man to his own cinematic universe away from the MCU, after the trailer for Morbius showed a poster of Spider-Man in the background, and featured an appearance from Adrian Toomes aka Vulture, played by Michael Keaton, a role he first played in Spider-Man: Homecoming.