Jared Leto Turns Vampire in the Trailer for Sony and Marvel's 'Morbius'

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | November 2, 2021 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | November 2, 2021 |

With the Spider-Man series doing well and Tom Hardy’s parasite boyfriend saga making a surprising amount of money, Sony is keen to expand its Spidey-Marvel verse into something that can compete with the other superhero franchises of the day. New to the table is Morbius, based on the living vampire created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. Dr. Michael Morbius is a brooding batlike anti-hero with superhuman abilities and a lust for blood. After several delays, this big-screen movie is set to debut next year, with Jared Leto in the lead role and a cast that includes Matt Smith, Tyrese Gibson, and the greatly superior Jared, Mr. Harris. The newest trailer just dropped and it is basically what you expected it to be.

This seems like pretty standard superhero origin movie stuff. You’ve got all your moody establishing shots, your transforming protagonist, lots of brooding and anguish over changing morality, a reference to all the gooey trouble that went down in San Francisco, a Michael Keaton cameo — hi! — and a slowed-down cover of a popular song.

Jared Leto is doing his thing, complete with a major physical transformation so that you can rest assured that he’s a very serious actor. He seems like he’s sleepwalking through this role to me. At least borrow a little of Tom Hardy’s weird sweaty Venom energy. Actually, this trailer reminds me a lot of the first Venom trailer in its po-faced seriousness, but we all know how that movie worked out in the end.

Will Leto be a box office draw? I can see why he’d be drawn to the opportunity to originate a major comic book character with franchise potential where he’s the undeniable draw. His last swing at a film in this genre didn’t exactly go well, and I remain convinced that the people tweeting for more of Leto’s Joker are part of some mass-trolling campaign. Leto’s already been talking up the possibility of Morbius meeting up with Blade once Mahershala Ali takes on the role in the wider Marvel Studios canon. I’m all for more vampires. I just wish it wasn’t Leto. Can we swap in Harris full-time?

And no, Jared Harris is not in this trailer enough for my liking, thank you very much.

Morbius is scheduled to be released in the United States on January 28, 2022.