Sony Pictures Entertainment took to YouTube to release a vignette based on the origin of Morbius, the Living Vampire, before its final trailer release on February 28, 2022. Morbius, the Living Vampire, also known as Dr. Michael Morbius is a Marvel Comics character who first appeared in the comic book series, The Amazing Spider-Man #101 as an antagonist.
The movie has been a getting delayed for a very long time now, as it was originally supposed to be released in July of 2020. However, the onset of the pandemic took a toll on the production and release. Before jumping into the details, take a quick peek in the vignette first.
The featurette revolves around Dr. Michael Morbius who is a Nobel prize winning biologist who excels in the field of hematology, yet couldn’t find a cure for his rare blood condition which makes him look rather unpleasant. In order to treat himself and people like him, Morbius took up a potentially dangerous experiment which involved fusion of bat DNA and electroshock therapy.
The experiment which initially looked like a success slowly started showing its repercussions. Morbius started to feel the need to feed on human blood, his canine teeth turned into fangs, his nose got flattened like a bat, along with traits that are generally tied to vampirism, induced chemically though. He also gained pseudo-vampiric abilities like increased strength, speed, heightened senses and reflexes, and ability to fly.
“I’d do anything to save a life, but I don’t know what I’m capable of.” This one sentence gives enough idea of the dilemma Morbius has found himself in. Now the question that lies is that whether he finds his way out of this uncontrolled vampirism or succumb to it and wreck havoc around him.
Oscar winning actor Jared Leto bagged the role of Morbius and he’s absolutely nailing the portrayal of inner conflict in the character. The character of a vampire has always been an epitome of callousness and evil, however, Roy Thomas and Gil Kane tried to bring out a morally conflicted Morbius. The first official trailer for the same was released three months ago.
The film is set in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and was supposed to release before Venom: Let There Be Carnage. But which one, exactly? Since the trailer release, the fans have been trying to find Easter eggs in it regarding the specification of the universe.
Multiple shots have created stir in the fandom like two skyline shots that showed Oscorp and Horizon labs. Horizon Labs is the place where Peter Parker eventually gets hired and creates a number of his more gadget-y Spider-Man suits, in Tobey Maguire‘s universe. Oscorp has been a villainous name in Spidey world and is owned by Norman Oscorp or Green Goblin, again from Tobey’s Universe. Another shot that was confounding was Morbius passing by a graffiti saying ‘murderer’ and it was scribbled over spiderman. And what makes it even more mind boggling is that the suit drawn was none other than Tobey Maguire’s.
Along with Spiderman references, one can figure out a lot of ‘Venom’ in the trailer. One such moment is where Michael Morbius–who apparently has a lot of dark humor—scares a criminal by pretending to be Venom. The whole point for which is maybe to justify that both of these characters belong to the same timeline in the very same universe.
Along with Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, and Tyrese Gibson are also a crucial part of the film. Written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharless, the film is executive produced by Louise Rosner and Emma Ludbrook. Morbius will premiere exclusively in theaters on April 1, 2022.