Sony is expanding its tangentially-related Spider-Verse with Morbius, another film that – like Venom before it – looks and sounds like it was inspired by a nu metal concept album released in 2000. To wit: Here's ponytailed Jared Leto trying to smash his way out of a glass cage that is clearly a metaphor for something or other in the first trailer for the new (or nu) Spidey-ish spinoff –
For those unfamiliar, Morbius follows the title character, Michael Morbius (Leto), as he tries to find a cure for his rare and debilitating blood disorder. In the process, Morbius accidentally gives himself vampire-like abilities, like crazy-good agility and echo location and a persistent urge to suck blood – but he is most certainly not a vampire. And so he becomes Morbius the Living Vampire (but again, not a vampire), an anti-hero of sorts who must rise above his not-vampire urges lest he bite someone and turn them into not-vampires. Jared Harris (the good Jared) plays his mentor, with Matt Smith as Morbius' former friend who also turned into a not-vampire but is not handling it so well (or is he? He looks OK to me!), Adria Arjona as Morbius' fiancé (who looks like she might be really into this whole not-vampire transformation), and Tyrese Gibson as an FBI agent who's going to hunt these not-vampires.
Morbius is directed by Daniel Espinosa, whose previous credits include Life (the not-a-stealth-Venom-prequel) – which was actually a pretty good time. Here's hoping Morbius can deliver something similarly entertaining despite all its brooding and bats and Leto-as-Cool-Jesus angst. Oh, and a cameo from Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock, preferably reporting on the not-vampire outbreak on The Brock Report With Eddie Brock.
Here's the official synopsis for Morbius, which arrives on July 31:
One of Marvel's most compelling and conflicted characters comes to the big screen as Oscar winner Jared Leto transforms into the enigmatic antihero, Michael Morbius. Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder, and determined to save others suffering his same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts a desperate gamble. What at first appears to be a radical success soon reveals itself to be a remedy potentially worse than the disease.