In 2018, Sony fell backwards into a hit withVenom, a messy movie with an even messier production, but one that, almost in spite of itself, ended up making over $800 million. Now, Sony is expanding their Spider-Man universe of spin-offs withMorbius, starring Jared Leto in his post-Joker comic book role.
The first trailer is here, and it looks like a movie. I can’t help but laugh at the epic cover of Für Elise, which is such a pouty Goth kid piece of music, but that actually suits Morbius the Living Vampire pretty well. It’s a pretty Goth comic. The trailer breaks down the origin story, in which a brilliant scientist, Michael Morbius (Leto), tries to cure his rare disease by experimenting on himself. It backfires, for while he does gain physical perfection, he also becomes a bloodthirsty science vampire. Honestly, the trailer looks fine. I’m more concerned about how obnoxious Jared Leto will be during the press tour. I can’t wait to hear about how he subsisted on blood or communed with bats or sent his castmates wooden stakes or whatever.
This trailer features some prominent changes following thevery public break-upand (临时)reconciliationbetween Sony and Marvel last year. Right off the bat, we have a new title card reading “In association with Marvel Studios”. And then we get an interstitial that says, “From the studio that brought you…” and they proceed to listVenom—a movie Sony made without official Marvel involvement—but also theSpider-Manmovies that belong in the MCU and are widely perceived as entirely the result of Marvel’s control. When writing about the initial break-up, I said,“我听说过多次是的rs that Sony chief Tom Rothman LOATHES the public perception that the success of Spider-Man is all down to Feige and Marvel.”So thisMorbiustrailer is some Sony dick-waving.
Also, there are some direct MCU references in this trailer, something we did not see withVenom. (Kevin Feige seemed appalled at the idea of foldingVenominto the MCU whenever it came up in the press. I wonder if he is excited aboutMorbiusriding the MCU’s coattails.) In one shot of Morbius walking in an alley, there is some graffiti with “Murderer” scrawled over a painting of Spider-Man, a reference to Mysterio’s con from the end ofSpider-Man: Far From Home. And then at the end of the trailer, Michael Keaton shows up asSpider-Man: Homecomingvillain Vulture. Naturally, everyone is assuming this meansMorbiusis part of the MCU.
But remember that the reconciliation between Sony and Marvel is temporary. It’s just for one moreSpider-Manmovie, to close out Tom Holland’s trilogy, and then Marvel can borrow Holland one last time for anAvengersfilm. But after that, Spider-Man is out of the MCU and Sony once again has total control of the Spider-verse. I don’t think these nods are about bringing Morbius the Living Vampire into the MCU, I think they’re about pullingSpider-Man, who was not mentioned inVenom, into his own Sony-based shared universe. Like, I don’t expect to see Jared Leto in a Marvel movie. I don’t expect the Avengers to talk about Morbius. I think Marvel will treat this like they treated the Marvel Netflix shows—they can’t stop it from happening, but they also don’t have to incorporate the continuity. After all, Sony is making it VERY clear that is THEIR sandbox and they are so graciously letting Marvel play in it.
