Morbius Appears to Be Set in Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man Universe Instead of the MCU

There are a lot of questions surrounding the future partnership between Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios when it comes to Spider-Man. While the character played by Tom Holland will continue to play a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony is starting to expand its own corner featuring characters like Venom and Morbius. And the first trailer for Jared Leto’s Morbius movie featured a version of the Wall Crawler that fans haven’t seen for quite some time, making people wonder if the movie will be tied into the MCU and just made a continuity error or if Sony is planning something else entirely.

Now a new set photo for what’s purported to be from Morbius has more implications that the movie will not tie into the MCU at all, but will instead be a part of Tobey Maguire‘s Spider-Man franchise.

A new photo cropped up from a production in Los Angeles that shows a city bus made to look like it’s from New York City, decorated with an advertisement that indicates Spider-Man has gone missing from the Big Apple. The ad is branded with the logo from the Daily Bugle, the newspaper operated by J. Jonah Jameson.

But where this reference gets tricky is the logo itself, which isn’t the same DailyBugle.net that we saw in the surprising post-credits scene in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Instead, the logo is the same one seen in the original Spider-Man trilogy directed by Sam Raimi.

This new image coupled with the appearance of Raimi’s Spider-Man in the Morbius trailer makes it seem like that poster was not a mistake, but was instead a particular choice from the filmmakers to indicate that the spinoff is actually taking place in the same universe as the original Spider-Man trilogy.

This could come as a major surprise for fans expecting a closer tie between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Sony’s Spider-Man spinoffs, especially after Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige made it clear that there were big plans for the character in the future.

“I am thrilled that Spidey’s journey in the MCU will continue, and I and all of us at Marvel Studios are very excited that we get to keep working on it,” said Feige. “Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold.”

We’ll find out what’s really going on with the missing Spider-Man when Morbius premieres in theaters on July 31st.