From comic to movie: Watch Jared Leto in this ‘Morbius’ trailer
Maybe Jared Leto doesn’t have the Joker anymore (and given the stories of his on-set behavior we’re not really sure we want him as the Joker). He does, however, have a new comic book movie on the horizon in Morbius. Honestly? A vampire is a role that Jared Leto was probably born to play. Mainly because we’re about 67% convinced that he is one.
Sony Pictures released the teaser trailer for Morbius. We’re here to give you the rundown of everything you need to know about this Spider-Man baddie turned antihero. Will you be watching this comic book come to life?
What is Morbius about?
Based on the Spider-Man character of the same name, Morbius follows brilliant scientist Michael Morbius (Jared Leto), who is afflicted with a rare blood disorder. Morbius is desperately trying to save his life and help others who are suffering the same fate. This leads to him doing something many scientists in comic book movies do and experiment on himself. While the cure appears successful at first, the remedy soon reveals itself to be potentially worse than the disease.
When will comic book scientists stop experimenting on themselves? You think in Marvel or DC there would be a prerequisite class or something called ‘So They Called You Mad…’ or something.
Who else is involved with Morbius?
Morbius is penned by four people, but they’re each in two-person writing teams. Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless, who are best known for Dracula Untold, and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway, who are best known for Iron Man, penned the script for Morbius. Daniel Espinosa directed the script. Espinosa is best known for directing Safe House and Life.
Matt Smith (Doctor Who), Adria Arjona (Good Omens), Jared Harris (Chernobyl), Al Madrigal (The Way Back), and Tyrese Gibson (Fast & Furious franchise) also star in Morbius.
So Morbius is a vampire?
Kind of? Morbius’ full title in comics is Morbius, the Living Vampire. Again, this is going off of what we know about the character in comics. Morbius is a scientifically created vampire over a supernatural one. That means that he doesn’t have the full range of abilities or weaknesses as a traditional vampire.
Morbius does have super strength and speed along with heightened senses, which is typical of a vampire. He also needs to ingest fresh blood regularly in order to retain his health. Morbius also has a healing factor, which allows him to recover from injuries quicker than a normal person.
Morbius, as he is not a supernatural vampire, does not have an aversion to crosses, garlic, holy water, or silver as a vampire usually will. While sunlight will weaken him, Morbius will not die if he goes outside during the day. He will, however, get a wicked sunburn and his powers diminish. He also can’t hypnotize anyone, turn into a bat or fog, etc.
He’s also alive rather than undead, which is a crucial difference.
Though in the trailer, it looks like he can turn into smoke and teleport like Nightcrawler. So it’s highly likely that Morbius the film is going a different way from the comics.
So is Morbius tangential/related to the MCU?
That is hard to say. In the trailer for Morbius, you can see a shot of a Spider-Man poster with the word “MURDERER” spray-painted on it. This could be a reference to the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home when Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) revealed Peter’s (Tom Holland) identity to the world and said that he killed along with pining his crimes on Peter.
There’s also a surprise Michael Keaton in the trailer. In the MCU, Keaton played Adrian Toomes/The Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming. So we don’t know if he’s reprising his role in Morbius or if it’s just a cameo role of some sort.
Morbius will, however, take place in the same universe as the 2018 film Venom. So that has been confirmed.
When is Morbius coming out?
Morbius will be released in US cinemas on July 31, 2020.
