When that screenshot of Jared Leto walking past a Spider-Man poster first arrived online, fans were blown away that Morbius would have a direct connection to the MCU. When we took a closer look at it, though, we realized that it was actually depicting Tobey Maguire’s wall-crawler, not Tom Holland’s. In fact, it actually appeared to be an image taken from the Spider-Man PS4 game.
Now, a new set photo seemingly provides additional evidence that Morbius is set in the world of the Sam Raimi films and not the Marvel Studios franchise. As you can see in the gallery below, this pic – initially attributed to Venom 2 before more intel proved it was from reshoots on Morbius – reveals a bus ad that asks “Where is Spider-Man?” To the right of this can be glimpsed The Daily Bugle logo, and that’s the key.
You see, that’s the logo of The Daily Bugle newspaper as featured heavily in the Raimi trilogy, and not that of DailyBugle.Net, the Infowars-like site run by J. Jonah Jameson in the MCU, as revealed at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. When put together with that shot of the recognizable Spidey suit worn by Maguire, this paints the picture that Morbius is definitively taking place in that universe.
That being said, the big flaw in this theory is Michael Keaton’s cameo as Vulture in the Morbius trailer. We’re all assuming this is the same one from Spider-Man: Homecoming, but J.K. Simmons reprising J.J.J. in FFH proves that the same faces recur throughout the Marvel multiverse. So, Vulture could look the same on Maguire’s Earth, too.
Speaking of the Marvel multiverse, Sam Raimi is reportedly in talks to helm Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which could lead to Maguire coming back for a cameo. So, maybe Marvel and Sony are playing a bigger game than we thought here? Or, you know, these Raimi references are just a couple of goofs. Who knows?