Jared Leto’s Spider-Man Spinoff ‘Morbius’ Gets Summer 2020 Release Date

After the success of Venom and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Sony Pictures is all in on their corner of the Marvel Universe and they’re now moving forward on the next film in the franchise.

Sony revealed the Jared Leto-starring spinoff Morbius The Living Vampire will release in theaters on July 31, 2020. So, yes, this movie is actually happening.

The studio made news earlier this week when they announced former Doctor Who star Matt Smith had joined the cast in a mysterious role, with a chance of playing the villain in the Marvel movie.

Little else is known about the film thus far, though it’s set to be helmed by Safe House director Daniel Espinoza.

Producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach spoke about the film with Collider previously, addressing why they decided to go with Leto in the starring role in his latest superhero movie.

“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 said. “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.”

He added, “We went to this place with them, and he just…good actors want to be different than what they are.”

Many fans speculated that Venom‘s more mature subject matter would net the film an R rating, but it ended up releasing as a PG-13 movie in theaters. While the producers haven’t hammered that aspect down yet, they are open to going with an adult-friendly rating.

“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 premieres in theaters on July 31, 2020.