We’re less than a week out from the release of Morbius, Sony’s next film in their villain-centric Spider-Man universe…which doesn’t actually include Spider-Man, except it does. Don’t ask me to explain the continuity here.
Morbius has faced six delays, so fans have had an awful long while to let their anticipation build. Unfortunately, the early impressions have been pretty bad across the board.
We are going to discuss some potential SPOILERS for the movie, so if you are guarding yourself from such things, beware. Although these spoilers are based off something Sony has repeatedly shown in trailers, so take from that what you will.
Morbius takes place in the same universe as Venom
In a recent Twitter Q&A, Morbius director Daniel Espinoza gave some specifics about the movie, including how it fits into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which it kinda-sorta intersected with, albeit briefly. Espinoza confirmed that, “Morbius lives in the same universe as Venom. This is the universe we saw Venom exit at the end of VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE and return to at the end of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME.”
That makes sense, but there are some wrinkles: for instance, Vulture (Michael Keaton) exists in this Venom-verse. But Vulture also fought Tom Holland’s Spider-Man over in the MCU, in Spider-Man: Homecoming. With characters crossing over to the Marvel universe from Sony’s older Spidey films in Spider-Man: No Way Home, the door was seemingly opened for more of these types of appearances. Morbius represents Sony’s first swing at tying those multiversal threads together in one of their own films.
There is a Spider-Man in the Morbius universe
Espinoza also confirmed that there is a Spider-Man in the universe occupied by Morbius and Venom, but he avoided giving any specifics about the wall-crawler’s identity. When asked which Spider-Man lives in the Venom universe, Espinoza said, “It is my understanding that audiences will discover the answer soon.”
So we don’t know for sure whether it’s Tom Holland, or if Sony is bringing back Andrew Garfield, or if it’s a totally new Spider-Man actor we haven’t met. Which would be exciting if Morbius didn’t sound like it was playing so fast and loose with its multiverse stuff; it’s hard to have confidence in it. The main link between the MCU and Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SMU) that reportedly shows up in Morbius is Adrian Toomes, aka the Vulture. Sony has made it a point to show Keaton repeatedly in the film’s trailers, but it’s being reported that the actor is relegated entirely to post-credits stingers.
On how the Vulture got to the “Venomverse”
Is the Vulture in Morbius the same one from Homecoming, or some multiversal variant? That, at least, is something Espinoza is willing to shed some light on. “At the end of VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE and SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, and in NO WAY HOME itself, it is clearly established that it is possible for characters to transfer from one Multiverse to another,” the director said. “The events of NO WAY HOME had the effect of transferring Venom and Vulture (and maybe others) back and forth between the MCU and the Venom Universe.”
Again, don’t ask me to explain this logic. The spell that Doctor Strange cast in Spider-Man: No Way Home did work in some unexpected ways…but by the end of the film, it seemingly reversed to put all those multiversal guest stars back in their own universes. So far as we know Toomes would be the only character who was actually placed in a different universe, for…reasons? Basically, Sony wanted Keaton’s Vulture in the movie, and have bent the rules however they needed to in order to make it happen.
SPOILERS for Morbius ahead
Morbius has two post-credits scenes. Apparently, Keaton shows up wearing his Vulture armor in one of them. Espinoza confirms that this is “not quite the same suit” as in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and chocks that up to Toomes’ resourcefulness that he was able to build himself a whole new Vulture suit in this other universe.
As for what he’s doing there…it’s to fulfill one of Sony’s longest-running Spider-Man ambitions. When asked whether the appearance of Toomes was setting up a Sinister Six movie, Espinoza said, “Well, is recruiting teammates and he has enticed one already. So it sure looks like a start.”
Now if we can just figure out why Toomes would care enough about this other universe’s Spider-Man to build a whole team of bad guys to take him down, that’d be great. When last we saw Toomes, he was straight-up defending Peter Parker by refusing to reveal Spidey’s secret identity to fellow prisoner Mac Gargan (who eventually becomes Scorpion in the comics). Hopefully, Sony’s got some logic to explain this heel turn.
Morbius is out exclusively in theaters on April 1.
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