Sony producer Avi Arad explains why the studio is excited to make Morbius. We're just a week away from Venom hitting theaters. Tracking indicates the movie will break the October opening weekend record, which is exactly what Sony needs the film to do to justify continuing this Spider-Man-less universe. They've been developing a number of different projects but it actually looks like Morbius will be the next one to get off the ground with Jared Leto in the leading role and Daniel Espinosa directing.

Playing Michael Morbius will be Leto's second comic book role after recently playing Joker in the DCEU. In Morbius, he'll get to be the star of the origin film instead of a villain. Michael becomes the living vampire after his attempt to cure his own disease goes terribly wrong. It is exactly this story arc that makes Sony excited for the film.

Screen Rant spoke to Sony producer Avi Arad at the Venom press junket. We asked him about a number of Spidey-related projects they're working on, including Morbius. Arad says Morbius is one of his favorite characters and teases his some what tragic story and the repercussions of it is what's behind the studio's interest in making the movie.

We are excited about Morbius. Morbius was always one of my favorite characters. I love the story about the healer that becomes a killer, and how do you deal with it.


Morbius is reportedly eyeing a November start to production, but that has not been confirmed at this point. It is safe to say that even though Sony is excited about Morbius and their other spinoffs, they may be waiting to see how Venom performs before continuing to move forward with these plans. If they do, then Leto's Morbius will reportedly star alongside Martine Bancroft, his fiancee in the comics who becomes a vampire too.

Sony's excitement about Morbius is far from the only thing we learned at the Venom press junket. Arad says he takes the blame for Spider-Man 3's use of Venom and forcing him into the film, even though director Sam Raimi didn't want to include the symbiote villain. For Sony's sake, those who want to see the rest of their proposed films need to hope Tom Hardy's portrayal of Venom will be far better than Topher Grace's. Fellow Venom producer Matt Tolmach also shared an update on Silver & Black, which contradicted previous reports that the film was no more and Silver Sable and Black Cat would get solo movies of their own instead. Sony's clearly in full develop mode with these Spidey films and with the excitement they have for Morbius, it may not be too much longer before more updates come.