Avi Arad Teases Morbius' New Look & More Marvel Movies Coming

Sony Pictures is riding a wave of success with their corner of Marvel movies, focusing on their stable of Spider-Man characters. With Spider-Man: Homecoming, Venom, and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse all performing well at the box office, the studio will continue to expand with new characters and concepts.

According to producer Avi Arad, who produced Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man trilogy and Into the Spider-Verse, fans should expect a lot from the upcoming Jared Leto movie Morbius — and more characters to come.

"Wait until you see the way he looks, what we have done with this character, you will love it," Arad said to Deadline. "There are so many other great characters on the way, too. You will see. We're just getting started."

The news of Leto starring in a movie based on Morbius the Living Vampire came as a surprise to some, especially after Leto's role as the Joker in the DC Comics film Suicide Squad. But Arad praised Leto's performance, likening the actor's ability to Venom star Tom Hardy.

"This is the great thing for us now, that an actor like [Leto], and an actor like [Venom star] Tom [Hardy] wanted to have their own character. But the character they love," Arad previously said to Collider. "Both of them, very hard to get them to do a movie. You actually cannot get them. We went in, we sat with them, and everybody told us, 'Oh, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.' Nothing. That's what he wanted to do."

While some speculated the film could be rated R, much like how people thought Venom would be rated R, producer Matt Tolmach cast doubt on those assumptions.

"I don't think there's a rule written somewhere in stone that all of them have to be one thing," Tolmach said. "I think we've all talked about, 'Well, if one of these presents itself in a way…' Look, we have all seen, as you've said, the R-rated versions of these movies now working. So, that's out there. You can succeed to a staggering degree."

Morbius The Living Vampire is currently set to premiere in theaters on July 31, 2020.

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