Tom Hardy‘s Venom movie is still deep in production, but Sony isn’t wasting any time setting up its next Spider-Man spin-off feature film. An adaptation of Marvel’s Morbius, the Living Vampire has been placed into development with a script by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, the co-writers of the Power Rangers reboot film.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the story about the Morbius movie, but it offered no details about the script’s take on the title character. Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane created Morbius in 1971 as a tragic Spider-Man villain, but he has gone on to headline his own comic book series that cast him in a more heroic light. As implied by the “Living Vampire” description, Dr. Michael Morbius is not a member of the undead. Instead, Morbius contracted his vampirism while attempting to cure himself of a rare blood disease.
The question is: Can Morbius work as a movie that is separated from both Spider-Man and the larger MCU? The Blade trilogy covered some of the same themes explored in Morbius’ solo stories, although Michael Morbius was far more interested in becoming human again than in fighting criminals or supernatural threats. And unlike Blade, a Morbius movie could also lend itself more easily to romantic subplots by introducing Martine Bancroft, Morbius’ ex-fiancée.
It’s unclear if the new Morbius film would directly tie into Sony’s Venom or the Black Cat and Silver Sable team-up movie. It’s certainly not impossible, and Sony has already demonstrated a desire to capture some of the MCU’s success with its previous attempt to create spinoffs from the Amazing Spider-Man films. But a key step to creating that cinematic universe would be to simply focus on making the best Morbius movie possible. As the recent implosion of the Dark Universe demonstrated, fans won’t line up to see a film just because it connects with other movies. First and foremost, Morbius needs a good story. From there, everything else can fall into place.
How do you feel about Sony’s potential Morbius movie? And who would you cast in the title role? Bare your fangs in the comment section below!
Images: Marvel Comics
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