The success of Venom last fall has given Sony the confidence to push forward with another Marvel movie based on a Spider-Man villain. Morbius is set to star Suicide Squad‘s Jared Leto as the titular living vampire whose history on the comic book page goes back to 1971. Unlike Eddie Brock, though, Dr. Michael Morbius doesn’t have a particularly rich mythos to mine from, so fans have been wondering how the film will fill out its cast of characters. In particular, they want to know who the cursed scientist’s new nemesis will be with Peter Parker off the table.
As previously revealed, The Crown‘s Matt Smith will star opposite Leto as the villain and thanks to The Hollywood Reporter, it’s now been confirmed that the actor is playing Loxias Crown, who the trade describes as “Morbius’ best friend who also suffers from the blood disease.” Crown looks to be an original character for the screen, but he seems to be as classic a comic book trope as you can get – the former best friend turned enemy who will probably end up with the same (vampiric) powers as Morbius. Hopefully Smith can mark the character out as a great antagonist.
In the same piece, THR also reveals Fast & Furious star Tyrese Gibson has joined the movie as the final major player to be cast. He’s on board as a currently unnamed FBI agent who’ll be hot on the tail of the bloodsucker. Adria Arjona, meanwhile, will portray Michael’s love interest, Martine Bancroft, while Jared Harris is set to fill the role of Morbius’ mentor. We wonder if he’ll turn out to be another iconic vampire from Marvel lore. Maybe even Dracula?
Leto recently teased our first look at him in character as the haemoglobin-loving anti-hero, with a snap on social media to celebrate the completion of the first week of filming. With 11 more still to go, expect a lot more info on Morbius to arrive online over the coming months before it hits theaters on July 31st, 2020.