Sony has been sitting on Morbius for close to two years at this point, and it wouldn’t be unfair to say that at no point has the buzz ever been particularly positive.
As one of the pandemic’s longest-delayed movies, Jared Leto’s Living Vampire has had to sit on the sidelines and watch fellow Marvel Comics adaptations Spider-Man: No Way Home, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Eternals, Black Widow, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings do solid business at the box office, patiently awaiting his turn.
That finally happens one week from today when the latest installment in Hollywood’s other shared Marvel universe comes to theaters, but the first wave of early reactions most certainly do not paint a hugely encouraging picture. However, as you can see below, Morbius at least appears to be delivering on the fairly low expectations.
It’s never a good sign when a blockbuster trends ahead of release because people think it’s going to suck, never mind the fact social media users were already voicing their displeasure over the post-credits scenes that were supposed to be under embargo, so things aren’t looking all that rosy for Morbius.
Leto might end up returning when the inevitable Sinister Six crossover happens, but the chances of the afflicted antihero leading his own multi-film standalone series are beginning to grow slimmer by the day, even if we’re not entirely surprised by the general sense of apathy to be greeting director Daniel Espinosa’s latest.
Morbius may well top the box office in its opening weekend due to a lack of direct competition, but that could turn out to be the best case scenario.