Morbius Director Addresses Whether Or Not There Was Director’s Cut Before Final Theatrical Cut

Morbius has left a lot of Marvel fans feeling confused – if not outright disappointed. The story of Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) transforming himself into a living vampire is pretty straightforward in Marvel Comics lore, and right from the start, Sony made it all the more exciting by teasing Morbius’s place in a larger Spider-Man Universe movie franchise – right from the start. So, when fans got to see the final theatrical cut of Morbius, it was all too obvious that some big changes had been made to the film. In a new interview, Morbius director Daniel Espinosa doesn’t confirm that Sony took a hatchet to his film – but he doesn’t quite deny it, either. 

(WARNING: Morbius SPOILERS Follow!) 

Uproxx writer Mike Ryan spoke to Daniel Espinosa (Safe House, Life) about Morbius following its release, and he bravely went in on every major controversy and talking point this movie has generated. That includes the total non-logic of the post-credits scenes, which saw Michael Keaton’s Vulture appearing in SSU and teaming up with Morbius. In fact, it was the discussion of the sweeping changes Sony made to Keaton’s role in the film that led to the question at hand: Is there an ‘Espinosa Cut’ of Morbius out there? 

“I’m a huge fan of Safe House. I’m a huge fan of Life. I’m sure you’ve seen the reviews for this [Morbius],” Ryan said to Espinosa. “This doesn’t feel like one of your movies and I’m curious, was this what you turned in? Is there something else?… I don’t believe for a second this is what you turned in.” 

During his response, Espinosa said “I think that I work at my best if I get a lot of decision power. But, in this movies, they’re big movies that have a lot of people’s interest. It’s different processes every time.”

The Swedish-Chilean director basically found a diplomatic way to say that yes, the studio and larger forces invested in Morbius kind of had the bigger say on what the final cut of the film looked like. In another part of his interview, Espinosa further explains how decisions like the final post-credits were influenced by Spider-Man: No Way Home and the mainstream acceptance of the Marvel multiverse concept. Taken altogether, it seems clear that Sony is still making the same mistakes that have self-sabotaged the Spider-Man franchise time and again. 

Morbius is now in theaters.