Morbius might focus on Jared Leto's titular living vampire, but after Spider-Man: No Way Home blasted the Marvel multiverse wide open, the question on everyone's lips has been: what crossovers are next? Spoilers ahead!
This Sony film, then, had a tough act to follow – and its major cameo, Michael Keaton's Adrian Toomes (AKA Vulture) has been known about since an early trailer. In the film, the MCU villain appears in the Morbius post-credits scene, and is transported from his world to the Sony-verse via the multiversal shenanigans of No Way Home. After being released from prison, he meets up with Morbius in full Vulture gear to talk about a team-up of people like them – which the vampire says is "intriguing."
"The whole idea of mixing a character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe with our universe was something that was there from the beginning," director Daniel Espinosa tells 12DOVE. "The core idea stems from the Spider-Verse, which was the animated movie that came out even before I started shooting my own picture. That idea was started both with us, but also with Kevin Feige. I think that's why they did the last Spider-Man in the way they did."
Morbius was supposed to release long before No Way Home, but the pandemic pushed the Sony film from 2020 to four months after the Spidey movie. With so much moving around, we asked Espinosa if anything about the cameo was affected by the delays.
"Over the last two years, we've been working on the movie constantly," he explains. "And things change. There are always different aspects. But there was also an idea that there might be scenes that you can see later on, that's going to come out."
It's not a leap to think the meeting between Morbius and Vulture is laying the groundwork for the Sinister Six. In the comics, both characters have been members of the group, along with Kraven the Hunter, who will soon be played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the Sony-verse.
While we asked the director about the villainous team, he wouldn't be drawn on specifics. "I remember when I was 12 years old, I read a comic book called Secret Wars, and it was when they took all the superheroes to a planet and all the super bad guys to a planet, and they had to fight each other," Espinosa says. "In Marvel, it always has existed, this great fascination of creating groups, and new friendships that can oppose other friendships. And I think that all us Marvel fans would die to see the Sony-verse people together."
Espinosa was also tight-lipped on what might be coming next in the Sony-verse.
"I think that the future is very exciting, and I think that the plans that Sony has in very closed rooms, that I'm not really allowed to attend, or the small snippets I've heard, fills me with joy," he reveals. "But if I said anything, they would shoot me on the spot."
Morbius is in UK cinemas and US theaters now. For deep dives on the movie, check out our guide to the Morbius ending explained and if Morbius is in the MCU or not – and see more from our interview with Espinosa on working with Jared Leto and the movie's horror tone, as well as Matt Smith on joining the Marvel Universe and his villainous character Milo.
