That’s Morbius, the Living Vampire, the character from Marvel Comics, in case you didn’t know. (Remember my Morbius action figure? I’ve since seen it on store shelves for half the price I paid for it, but oh, well.) I’m not sure if Sony quite knows what it’s doing, but it’s planning a Morbius movie.
Here’s what’s going on: Sony has the movie rights to Spider-Man and all Spider-Man characters. Morbius is historically a Spider-Man villain, thus he falls under the umbrella of this deal. There’s already a Venom movie currently filming, starring Tom Hardy. Venom is also a Spider-Man villain. Sony also plans other Spider-Man-related films. Problem is, after the dismal failure of its own Spider-Man franchise, Sony gave the character back to Marvel Studios. This past summer’s SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING put the character back where he belongs, now firmly a part of the overall Marvel cinematic universe alongside the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, etc. But the new Venom movie, along with any Morbius movie, will NOT be a part of the Marvel Studios universe. Is they want those movies to succeed, they’d better divorce them from Spider-Man completely. I’m skeptical that even this move would work, though. Sony had planned its own cinematic “spider-verse” since BEFORE it gave Spidey back to Marvel. Venom. Black Cat. Silver Sable. They’re all getting movies. The whole thing sounds like a recipe for box office disaster.
Morbius, though, could work. There’s no reason a Morbius movie would have to have anything to do with ANY cinematic superhero world. Keep it focused just on Morbius, and they might just have a franchise on their hands.
Damn. This means they’re gonna be making NEW Morbius action figures.