How Morbius Could Place Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man in the MCU

The relationship between Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios is a complicated one, to say the least. Sony has long owned the rights to Spider-Man and all of his supporting characters, which made total sense until the Marvel Cinematic Universe began. After five solo films featuring two different lead actors, Spider-Man was essentially rebooted to be a part of the MCU, with Sony producing the movies with the help of Marvel’s Kevin Feige, and star Tom Holland allowed to join other MCU adventures. However, Sony is still making standalone movies with other Spider-Man characters and no Peter Parker, seemingly throwing a wrench in the whole system. Now we have the trailer for Sony’s Morbius, which doesn’t just blur the lines of the Sony and Marvel universes, it basically erases them.

To this point, Venom has not been confirmed to be a part of the MCU, and Morbius seemed like it would be in a similar boat. It could take place in the world of Spider-Man but never mention or introduce the characters from the Marvel films. Well the Morbius trailer connected itself to Spider-Man’s Sony past, as well as his MCU present, and created a way for them both to exist simultaneously. No, this isn’t a multiverse thing. It’s a lot simpler than that.

There are two key moments in the Morbius trailer to pay attention to. The first is a sequence about towards the end of the trailer where Jared Leto’s Michael Morbius is wearing an orange jumpsuit and briskly walks by a poster of Spider-Man. That seemingly promotional image has the word “Murderer” spray-painted across it, alluding to the current MCU storyline where the world believes Peter Parker killed Mysterio in cold blood, thanks to the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. However, if you look at the suit, you’ll notice that it isn’t Holland’s at all. The white webbing and wide eyes make it look much more like the suit worn by Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man trilogy.

A surprise appearance by Michael Keaton at the end of the trailer make it seem as though Morbius is connected to the new Spider-Man films in the MCU, as Keaton is wearing the same jumpsuit he’s seen in during the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: Homecoming. The whole thing could be a red herring, but it’s set up to look like Keaton truly is reprising his role as Vulture in Morbius.

So how do we make sense of all this? Let’s say the poster of Spider-Man is an actual poster, advertising a movie. Now everything falls into place. Raimi’s Spider-Man exists within the MCU as a fictional movie franchise.

Spider-Man has been a prominent hero in the world of the MCU for a few years, it wouldn’t be surprising to see someone make a fictional retelling of his life, especially after his identity was outed by J. Jonah Jameson in Far From Home. His whole story is there to be told and interpreted, especially since he’s gone on the run and unable to offer his own account. Sam Raimi simply exists within the MCU and made a Spider-Man movie to try and prove to the world that Peter Parker was a hero, not the villain he was made out to be.

Sure, Iron Man and the Avengers were a big part of Spider-Man’s story, but what if Pepper Potts didn’t want Tony Stark’s life to be told in a film? She could easily say no to any studio that came around asking. When Iron Man’ rights weren’t available, Raimi could’ve just taken the story into his own hands and made it more grounded and focusing on Peter, even setting it back in the years before the Avengers existed. This could also explain why J. Jonah Jameson appears the same in real life and in the movies: He played himself.

Will any of this actually turn out to be true when the Sony and Marvel universes eventually overlap? Probably not, but it’s an easy to way to make sense out of everything that the Morbius trailer seems to indicate. We can at least pretend it’s canon until a movie confirms otherwise, right?