What the Multiversal Hell is Happening in 'Morbius'?
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Sure, it was exciting when we first gleaned the implication that Spider-Man: No Way Home would resurrect the Spideys of Days Past, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Cue months of leaks and speculation. Then, in Sony's Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Venom traversed a portal through the multiverse, carrying Peter Parker’s alter ego from Sony's universe to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, only for the guy to be sucked back into the Sonyverse at the end of No Way Home. Confusing, we know!
Now, tepid followers of superhero cinema, prepare to be even more confused. Sony just dropped a new trailer for Morbius, which stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, who is cured from a fatal blood disease when, for lack of a more elegant way to say it, he becomes... a vampire. Morbius takes place in the same cinematic universe that Venom inhabits, which is all fine and well. The problem? Well, the Morbius trailers are beyond bloated with Easter Eggs from 20 years of Spider-Man movies. So let’s try to figure out what in the multiversal hell is going on before the film actually arrives.
What's Happening in the Trailers for Morbius?
First of all, know that Morbius, like Venom, is a familiar foe of Spidey's in the comic books. So, just as the Venom franchise seems to be ramping up for a crossover with Tom Holland's MCU Spider-Man (we'll save you the finer details of the business between Marvel and Sony), Morbius is likely giving us another antihero's origin story in hopes of a future battle with Holland’s, Garfield's, or Maguire's Spider-Man. Let us explain.
If you look closely at the first Morbius trailer, you'll see references to all three major live-action Spider-Man franchises. At one point, Vampire Leto passes by a poster that says MURDERER on it—a reference to the Mysterio-Spidey drama in Far From Home—with a picture of what looks to be Maguire's Spidey suit. Then, when Morbius picks up a copy of The Daily Bugle, we see cover lines referring to The Amazing Spider-Man's Black Cat and Rhino. Finally! And this is a big one! As we saw in the first trailer for Morbius, it seems like Michael Keaton's Vulture worked his way into the film.
That brings us to the newest trailer, which dropped in late February. If we're being honest, not much happens during most of the trailer. We're reminded that, yes, Michael Morbius is a dude turning into a vampire and he's kinda conflicted about it. But this preview features more of Keaton's Spider-Man villain. He's seemingly still in the prison we saw him thrown in at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, which means that, 1/ Vulture was somehow pulled into the Sonyverse at the end of No Way Home, or 2/ The Vulture we meet in Morbius is a variant. If I had to put money on it, I'd say that it's the latter. Vulture, while a great character, has more or less finished his arc in the MCU. Pulling him into the Sonyverse for extra villainous antics would be a smart move.
So, When Will Morbius Be Released?
This one will drop on April 1, 2022, which might end up being our biggest clue as to what's going on here. Morbius conveniently drops right before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness releases on May 6, 2022. Are we suggesting there might be some Sonyverse antics in Doctor Strange? We know better than to rule anything out at this point.
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