Hopefully, Jared Leto Doesn’t Ruin the New ‘Morbius’ Movie

Judging by the new Morbius trailer released today, it seems as though Jared Leto will redeem himself to comic book fans everywhere with his second foray into the world. This time he’s ditching DC and sliding over to the more successful Marvel Studios to play an anti-hero that is unknown to many.

Fans of the comics or the popular ’90s Spider-Man TV series will remember Michael Morbius as a scientist who accidentally turned himself into a vampire while trying to find a cure for his rare blood disease.

Morbius has always been an anti-hero similar to what Sony did with their Venom movie. Though he’s cursed with this affliction that forces him to drink blood to survive, he tries to focus that bloodlust on the bottom dwellers of New York. Unfortunately, his lust for blood sometimes overpowers him, driving him to attack undeserving victims which is where Spider-Man comes in.

Morbius will most likely follow in the footsteps of Venom and Joker and skip having a protagonist at all, instead choosing to solely focus on the main character and the moral dilemmas they face. However, we do know that Matt Smith will be playing the villain Loxias Crown and the trailer shows a quick clip of Michael Keaton, most likely reprising his role as Adrian Toomes from Spider-Man Homecoming.

In the trailer, we can see a lot of dark cinematography which is exactly what we want to see from a movie of this nature. Since this is the first trailer, they don’t give us much to work with. Instead, they use the trailer to introduce the character to everyone who has most likely never heard of this character. It isn’t until the end that we see Leto in his full Morbius transformation and I have to say that translated Morbius’ look to live-action incredibly well.

There is one issue that is making comic fans nervous, and that is the actor. Leto was largely panned as the Joker with many fans questioning if he had ever read a Batman comic in his life. The actor has been in a number of iconic roles and solidified his place in Hollywood, but his take on The Joker was abysmal. Hopefully, Leto has learned his lesson and took some time to study the intricacies of the Michael Morbius character so he can deliver the performance that fans will expect.

There is a lot riding on this film. Venom was a commercial success and it already has a sequel on the way. If Morbius can deliver, it’s likely we will see a lot more of these stand-alone films and the possibility of the long-rumored Sinister Six movie. Morbius doesn’t have an official release date, but it is slated to be released sometime this summer.