Morbius Director Comments On Possible Amazing Spider-Man Connections
Morbius director Daniel Espinosa discusses possible connections between his film and The Amazing Spider-Man series. Morbius is the latest movie to be released in Sony's Spider-Man Universe and tells the tale of biochemist Michael Morbius (played by Jared Leto), who accidentally infects himself with a form of vampirism while attempting to cure his rare blood disease. While early reviews for Morbius have been rather poor, the film did still manage to intrigue fans in at least one way. Morbius seems to be hinting that it is connected to a particular Spider-Man universe.
The character of Morbius has long been a Spider-Man villain in Marvel comics, so many fans were already expecting to see some references to the world of the Web-Slinger placed throughout the film. In fact, rumors have been swirling around since the release of early Morbius trailers, as a shot can be seen of the famous fictional newspaper, "The Daily Bugle," which seems to contain a headline about the character Rhino. As many fans will remember, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (starring Andrew Garfield) ended with Spider-Man going head to head with Rhino. Since the release of Morbius, some fans have also spotted that Oscorp Tower can be seen in the city skyline, and it bears the logo design seen in The Amazing Spider-Man films. This seems like pretty hard evidence that Garfield's universe also contains Morbius.
In a recent interview with IGN, director Espinosa was asked if he could comment on whether Morbius takes place in the same world as The Amazing Spider-Man. He neither confirms nor denies the connection, stating that if he did, someone from Sony would have him shot for forcing "them to commit to something." While Espinosa's comment seems to imply that the studio has not decided where they want to take this shared universe idea yet, the director has stated that he has his "thoughts and opinions and they are in the movie," clarifying that this is what he is pushing for and would like to see in the future. See his full quote below:
There are people at Sony that will have me shot [for saying anything] because then I will force them to commit to something. I have my thoughts and opinions and they are in the movie, and that's what I'm pushing for.
While Espinosa cannot confirm that Morbius takes place in the same universe as The Amazing Spider-Man, he does say it takes place in the same universe as Venom. This certainly makes it clear that Sony is aiming to make their own cinematic universe, but, according to Espinosa, they seem cautious to make any further commitments. With the success of the MCU's Spider-Man: No Way Home, many fans have been pushing for both a return to the world of Garfield's Spider-Man, as well as a continuation of Sam Raimi's iconic trilogy starring Tobey Maguire. Despite Espinosa clearly pushing for the studio to go in one direction, perhaps they don't want to put all of their eggs in one basket just yet.
It will certainly be interesting to see where Sony will go from here. It is very possible that the apparent critical flop of Morbius may convince the studio to explore other avenues and leave some of the movie's ideas behind. With that said, perhaps Sony has more of a plan than they've let on. With Venom's appearance in No Way Home, and Michael Keaton's return as Vulture in Morbius' post-credit scene, it seems clear that Sony isn't ready to completely cut ties with the MCU just yet. However, for now, fans will have to be content with seeing Morbius - despite its reviews - to see if they can catch any clues others have missed.
Source: IGN