The first look at Jared Leto as Marvel’s Morbius the Living Vampire in Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man movies spinoff has surfaced online. The close-up shot shows Leto as Morbius looking over his should. The live-action version of the character has Morbius’ trademark pale skin, short nose, and vampiric fangs from the comics. It remains to be seen whether he has the life-force stealing suckers on his hand. You can take a look at the image below. Based on the trailer being rated last week, it shouldn’t be long before the first footage from the new movie is released online, offering fans their first look at Leto’s Morbius in action. Producer Avi Arad has teased that fans are going to like what they see.
“Wait until you see the way he looks, what we have done with this character, you will love it,” Arad said. “There are so many other great characters on the way, too. You will see. We’re just getting started.”
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“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,” he said in a separate interview. “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. We went to this place with them, and he just…good actors want to be different than what they are.”
That’s pretty spot on (via @Vullein) #Morbius pic.twitter.com/AK3hv0wFR3
— Sagar 🦇🦇🦇 (@Nin3ZeroFour) January 11, 2020
During an interview in 2019, Leto explained that it’s his appreciation for vampire fiction going back to his childhood that led him towards the role of Morbius. “When I was a kid, I remember being at my grandmother’s house in Louisiana and the original OG would come on and just being pretty transfixed as so many of us were when we saw that,” Leto said, likely referring to Dracula movies. “And then the Anne Rice era was big for my brother and I. We passed those books around to each other.”
In the Marvel universe, Morbius was a biologist attempting to find the cure for the rare blood disease that afflicted him. Self-experimentation led to him being inflicted with “pseudo-vampirism.” The condition curses Morbius with many of the traits of a true vampire, including bloodlust and aversion to light, as well as some of their gifts, such as flight and super strength.
What do you think of Leto’s Morbius? Let us know in the comments. Morbius opens in theaters on July 31st.