Everything you need to know about the ‘Morbius’ Spider-Man spinoff
With the news that Jared Leto has signed on to play Morbius in a spinoff of the Spider-Man franchise, we’re taking a look at everything there is to know about the film so far. And more importantly, do we even need it? Short answer: No, we probably do not.
It seems like a lifetime ago now that Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead) directed the first of the new Spider-Man films. The franchise now feels a bit like the Star Wars films whereby you don’t really know where they’re up to or what the point is anymore other than fanboys getting to see what currently hot actor will play a relatively small character from the comic book series that they kind of remember from childhood. But they’ll keep churning them out as long as people keep going to see them and is that really a bad thing? Well, for Marvel it sure as hell isn’t.
Who’s in it?
Jared Leto! Leto has signed on to play Morbius as well as playing the Joker in both the upcoming sequel to the Suicide Squad movie and a standalone Joker movie too, pretty much confirming Leto’s status as the go-to guy for comic book franchises.
Who’s making it?
Safe House director Daniel Espinosa has signed on to direct the film, which is being written by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama who wrote for the Netflix show Lost in Space. Producing duties go to Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach along with Lucas Foster and Palak Patel.
Are there any other spinoffs in the pipeline?
You bet your goddamn Spidey Senses there are! Along with the Morbius movie, there’s the Venom film (starring Tom Hardy), the sequel to last year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, and there’s Spider-Man: Far From Home (hopefully National Lampoon’s Spidey Vacation will complete that trilogy). There’s also a Silk film about Peter Parker’s classmate Cindy Moon who was also bitten by a radioactive spider, which will be the first superhero movie to star a Korean-American actor in a lead role. Not to mention Silver and Black – the long-awaited Marvel film with female superhero leads. And though that isn’t scheduled to go into production until next year, Gina Prince-Bythewood – the executive producer of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger show – is already attached to direct. That enough spinoffs for ya? We thought so.
