You probably know by now that Venom is just the tip of the iceberg for Sony when it comes to the Spider-Man related characters they still have the rights to. While Peter Parker’s now happily rubbing shoulders with the Avengers over in the MCU, the studio’s plowing ahead with its own shared franchise, which is snappily titled Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters.
For a time, Silver & Black from Gina Prince-Bythewood was set to be the next out of the gate, but that recently went back to the drawing board and became two separate projects. Instead, a standalone vehicle for Morbius the Living Vampire has been bumped up to take its place. The story of the tragic bloodsucker will star Jared Leto with Daniel Espinosa directing.
To promote Venom, producers Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad spoke to ComicBook.com recently and while doing so, provided an update on where the Morbius movie’s currently at. Tolmach specified that more news will materialize “soon,” adding: “We’re obviously working on Morbius now. That’s sort of next up for us.”
As for Leto in the lead, Tolmach promised that we can get ready for “awesomeness” from the Suicide Squad actor in the anti-hero role. He even teased that the Oscar-winning performer would bring a similar level of dedication as he did to his DC role, for which he infamously went pretty method for. “Just a similar level of intensity and charisma and devotion to the character,” said Tolmach.
Arad then added, “And loving the character,” meaning that Leto’s apparently a big fan of Morbius, which makes sense. Even in the realms of the often sympathetic Spider-Man villains, Morbius was always a complex character who had the curse of vampirism thrust on him after a failed biochemical experiment. There should be lots for Leto to sink his teeth into, then. And no, I’m not going to apologize for that.
Venom drops on October 5th and assuming it does well, expect more news on the Morbius front over the next few months.