We’re in the Spider-Verse now. With the rumors of multi-dimensional Spider-Men showing up in Spider-Man: No Way Home, the rights to the character set to revert back to single ownership, and two successful Venom films under their belt, Sony is working hard to lay the groundwork for their non-MCU Universe of Marvel Characters. The latest foray into that world is Morbius, which today has received a fresh trailer.
Originally set for a July 31st, 2020 release, the Jared Leto-starring vampire flick will now swarm theaters in January 2022. It centers on Michael Morbius, a doctor and biologist who’s searching for a cure to his own rare blood disorder. He believes he’s found it in the blood of bats, experimenting on himself to dangerously unexpected results. His disease is gone, but it’s replaced with another one — one that turns him into a blood-thirsty, vicious, flying, echo-locating living vampire.
Okay neat, but the nerds really want to know, “How does this tie in with Spider-Man?” Turns out, intimately. The new Morbius trailer features two direct references to Venom, setting those Tom Hardy movies clearly in the same universe as this film. Then there’s another appearance by Michael Keaton, reprising his role as an imprisoned Adrian Toomes/Vulture last seen in the MCU’s Spider-Man: Homecoming.
It gets more granular from there. In two different cityscape pans, fans will catch the Oscorp and Horizon Labs buildings; the former is the company run by Norman Osborn, aka Spider-Man’s archnemesis Green Goblin. The latter is a competing tech company that Morbius and Peter Parker both worked for (with Parker at one point running it) at different points in the comics. Elsewhere, there’s a quick shot of a newspaper (The Daily Bugle, natch) that teases classic Spidey characters Rhino (seen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 played by Paul Giamatti and rumored to be returning for No Way Home) and Black Cat.
And that’s on top of all the action-horror scenes and Tyrese Gibson. Yeah, there’s a lot going on here, so take a look below.
Coming from director Daniel Espinosa with a screenplay from Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, Morbius also stars Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, and Al Madrigal.
