Morbius: Jared Leto Playing Another Weird Villain In Spider-Man Spin-Off
He vants to suck your blood!
On the same day that the popularity of upcoming stand-alone Venom was confirmed through its franchise-high trailer views, Sony have doubled-down on their cinematic Spider-verse with a major bit of casting news.
According to Deadline, Jared Leto will team up with Daniel Espinosa for Spider-Man spin-off based on comic book character Morbius the Living Vampire. It's being written by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, who created Netflix’s Lost in Space.
It's one of the more unexpected movies on the comic book movie horizon, but it wouldn't be the first time Leto has played one of the weirder inhabitants of that world. He has The Joker under his belt after all.
He will play Dr. Michael Morbius, a biochemist who injects himself with a serum derived from bats in an attempt to cure a fatal blood disease. Nobody mention Man-Bat. He debuted in the comics as a villain opposite Spider-Man, but the suggestion seems to be that he'll be an anti-hero here, just as Tom Hardy's Venom is.
He's a vampire, so it's hope this is more Blade than Twilight.
It's an interesting project, of course, but you have to wonder how many villains Sony are going to give their own movies (with the anti-hero spin) before they realise they've got none left for potential future Spider-Man movies in their own franchise (if that happens any time soon).
Still, who doesn't want more supernatural comic book movies?