What do you need to know about Marvel's Living Vampire before he makes his big-screen debut?
Who's in the cast? Who's directing? Keep watching to find out everything we know about "Morbius."
"Morbius" was originally set to release in the summer of 2020, right in the middle of
blockbuster season alongside other major comic book releases like "Black Widow" and "Eternals."
That was a bold choice, but like the rest of the 2020 summer movie season, the pandemic got in the
way, and Sony moved its Living Vampire back to the spring of 2021. Eventually
spring became winter, and the film was bumped up to its current release date of January 28, 2022.
Filling the lead role of Dr. Michael Morbius is Jared Leto. While he's known for his sometimes
questionable commitment to his roles, we haven't heard stories
of any weird hijinks on the "Morbius" set just yet. What we do know, though,
is that Leto was already a big fan of vampire stories when he took the role.
Leto has a long history of consuming vampire-centered media of various stripes,
and has a lot of passion for the genre, from Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" to
Bram Stoker's original classic, "Dracula." It'll be very interesting to see how he brings those
influences to the comic book world of Morbius, who's a unique vampire character in his own right.
"I love the opportunity to do something transformational."
Adria Arjona has been cast as Martine Bancroft, Morbius' fiancee. As a
supporting character to the Living Vampire, who is himself generally not a leading man,
it's no surprise that there isn't exactly a wealth of knowledge about her to glean from
the source material. In the comics stories, she often exists purely to die or be mind-controlled
into joining cults, giving Morbius sorrow to brood over until she's resurrected again. At one
point she also tried to become a true mythical vampire and turned on her lover before dying,
seemingly for good. In this case, though, the fact that this lesser-known comic property
doesn't have an expansive lore could actually work in the project's favor,
because it leaves room for a lot of new invention in the story.
Arjona herself may not be a household name, but she's already got an impressive list of
credits to her name going into "Morbius." You may have already seen her in shows
like "True Detective" and "Good Omens" and films like "Pacific Rim: Uprising."
Matt Smith has been cast as the key villain of "Morbius," his best-friend-turned-enemy
Loxias Crown, who also suffers from the same blood disease as the Living Vampire. We don't know much
about the motivations of this character played by the former Time Lord, but the disease is fatal,
so Crown certainly has a lot of desperate motivation to become the creature Morbius is.
In the comics, Crown also goes by the villain name Hunger. The character has only appeared in only a
few comics, but he too is a pseudo-vampire created by capturing Morbius and experimenting on him to
gain his powers. Loxias could possibly be a blend of this villain and Morbius' comics research
assistant Emil Nikos. We'll have to wait and see how the comics and the film blend on this one.
Two casting choices for Morbius' supporting characters have piqued our curiosity.
Tyrese Gibson, cast as an FBI agent referred to as "Agent Stroud," is tasked with chasing
Morbius down in the wake of his vampiric killing spree. Then there's "Mad Men" and
"Chernobyl" star Jared Harris, who has been cast as someone described as Morbius' mentor.
The first trailer for "Morbius" arrived in January 2020, with the dark,
brooding mood you might expect — plus a few interesting surprises.
Overall, the trailer summarizes Morbius' motivation for the film:
he's terminally ill and desperate to find a cure, permitting Jared Leto to get very broody with the
performance. Hubris is an underlying theme, too, with several shots of Morbius receiving awards yet
feeling unsatisfied with the slow progression of his research. That's what drives him to undertake
the absurd steps he does to cure himself with bats, no matter what his mentor or colleagues say.
There are a few intriguing revelations to be found in the first Morbius trailer — including
a Spider-Man Easter egg and the return of Michael Keaton's Vulture — but the biggest
surprise might be the revelation that the source of Morbius' vampirism seems far more
mystical than fans perhaps anticipated. He has a weird-looking ceremonial knife and everything.
Beyond that, we also get glimpses of Martine Bancroft,
who's been upgraded to Morbius' research assistant for the film.
Sony Pictures describes "Morbius" as a "horror action story" about a scientist trying to cure
his own rare blood disease. In the process, he accidentally turns himself into a vampire.
Desperate for blood, he decides to feed on criminals rather than innocent people.
In comics continuity, Dr. Michael Morbius attempts to cure his rare blood disease
by inventing a serum distilled from the vital fluids of bats, then hooking up to an electric
line to shock himself. As you might expect, this harebrained idea goes a bit awry and whoops, now
Dr. Morbius is a sci-fi vampire. That's why he's the Living Vampire, you see — because science.
From there, Morbius' transformation will make a hero to some, and a villain to others, but
it's not clear how he himself will get through it all…yet.
At the helm of "Morbius" is Daniel Espinosa, who was attached at virtually the same time Leto
joined the project. His most recognizable director credit in the United States is for the 2017 alien
horror-thriller "Life," but that's not his only work. In his native Sweden he directed the 2010
film "Easy Money," and his other American credits include "Safe House" and "Child 44."
On the writing side of things, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless handled the script for
"Morbius" after years of working together on other genre projects. Their previous credits
include "Gods of Egypt," the 2017 "Power Rangers" reboot, and "Dracula Untold."
We know that "Morbius" is set in the still-developing Sony Pictures universe
of Spider-Man supporting characters, but just how much will it connect to other Spider-franchises?
Aside from a glimpse of Horizon Labs — a fun Easter egg for comics readers who'll recognize
the company where Peter Parker used to work — the final "Morbius" trailer also makes it
clear that the title character very much shares a universe with Spidey. We have an Oscorp sighting,
affirming that Green Goblin Norman Osborn exists in this MCU-adjacent corner of reality,
and we also get another look at whatever's going down when Adrian Toomes, aka The Vulture
meets up with Morbius. There's also a Daily Bugle headline touting Morbius' arrest amid
references to other Spider-Man characters.
"There's a web of opportunity."
This almost certainly only scratches the surface of what we can expect in terms of connections
between the various Spider-franchises, and we can't wait to see what's in store.
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