Sony Pictures releases the Morbius movie trailer, confirming the studio's Spider-Man villain films are in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Focusing on the Marvel Comics character Morbius the Living Vampire, Sony's upcoming comic book movie stars Jared Leto as the titular anti-hero. The movie is the second installment in Sony's Universe of Marvel Characters, the burgeoning franchise that additionally includes Eddie Brock aka Venom (Tom Hardy). However, before Venom 2 arrives, Leto will make his debut as Morbius.

The actor posted a few teases for the upcoming Marvel movie while it was filming, but little news about the film has come to light since production concluded last year. As we get closer to its July 2020 release date, though, Sony will begin the marketing push - including releasing the first Morbius movie trailer. In addition to Leto as Michael Morbius, Sony's Marvel film stars Adria Arjona as Michael's fiancée Martine Bancroft, Matt Smith as Michael's friend Loxias Crown, Jared Harris as Michael's mentor and Tyrese Gibson as FBI agent Simon Stroud. Now, get a first look at the cast in action in the first footage released for Morbius.

Sony unveiled the Morbius movie trailer, revealing Leto's jump to Marvel after playing the Joker in David Ayer's Suicide Squad. Daniel Espinosa (Life) directs Morbius from a script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (Dracula Untold, Gods of Egypt). Watch the Morbius trailer below.


What's arguably most exciting about the Morbius trailer is that it finally confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that Sony's Marvel movies are set within the MCU. Although Sony avoided confirming or denying this with Venom, making Eddie Brock's origin story unrelated to Spider-Man entirely, Michael Morbius can be seen in this trailer interacting with Spider-Man: Homecoming villain Vulture (Michael Keaton). Further, at another point Michael walks by graffiti of Spider-Man with the phrase "Murderer" across it. That's a direct followup to the Spider-Man: Far From Home post-credits scene in which J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) revealed Spider-Man's identity and blamed him for the death of Mysterio.

Since Morbius is the origin film for Leto's anti-hero, it's likely the character won't have too much to do with Spider-Man - yet. Sony has already said they're building up to a Sinister Six movie and it's likely Vulture's inclusion here is further setup for such a film. After all, Sony's new deal with Marvel only includes Spider-Man 3 and an MCU team-up film. Beyond that, it's unclear what will become of Tom Holland's Spider-Man, but with rumors he'll appear in Venom 2 and Morbius also existing in the same world, it seems like Sony is preparing for the SUMC to be a kind of spinoff franchise from the MCU.

Still, it remains to be seen how Morbius performs among moviegoers. While Venom was a success, Morbius is necessarily a guaranteed hit as it's looking to launch its own Marvel anti-hero. It's unclear whether fans will latch onto Leto's Michael Morbius as much as they did Hardy's Eddie Brock. We'll learn more as we get closer to the Morbius release date in July.

Morbius (2020)
Release Date: Jul 31, 2020