At CCXP Worlds 2021, Sony released a new clip of Morbius, the next movie set in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, in which Jared Leto plays the titular half-vampire. Morbius is part of Sony’s project to build a cinematic universe with Spider-Man villains, set in the same reality where Tom Hardy’s Venom movies occur.
Morbius follows the origin story of Doctor Michael Morbius, a man with a rare and deadly blood disease who’s ready to do anything he can to find a cure. Unfortunately, that means turning himself into a blood-thirsty half-vampire that preys on humans. In a similar fashion as Venom, Morbius intends to introduce an anti-hero who’s not afraid to kill his victims, and who’ll use his newly gained powers to terrify criminals even worse than him. In addition, Morbius is somehow connected to Sony’s future plans with Spider-Man, although no one knows for sure what these plans actually are.
Morbius’ latest trailer has references to multiple iterations of Spider-Man in theaters, with nods to the events lived both by Tom Holland in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man short-lived franchise. The trailer also has a clever easter-egg with Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man costume and mentions Hardy’s Venom by name, leading fans to wonder what exactly is happening behind the cameras. Take into account that Tom Hardy’s Venom is reportedly making a cameo in Morbius, and Michael Keaton might be reprising his role as the MCU’s Vulture, and it seems like Sony and Disney super-hero movies will become part of the same continuity.
So far, Sony and Disney left their superhero movies in separate universes, but as the MCU jumpstarts the Multiverse, anything became possible. In less than two weeks, Spider-Man: No Way Home will feature Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, Jamie Foxx’s Electro, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, and, as recently revealed, Thomas Haden Church's Sandman and Rhys Ifans' Lizard. All these villains come from Sony’s previous iterations of the Web Crawler, exactly one bad guy for each pre-MCU film — three starring Maguire as the titular hero, and the other two led by Garfield.
Also, Venom: Let There Be Carnage already shattered the barrier between Sony’s movies and the MCU. It’s fair to say, then, that Morbius might be the first movie to show the aftermath of No Way Home.
Directed by Daniel Espinosa from a script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, Morbius is slated for January 28, 2022. Watch the new clip below: