F9 Star Tyrese Gibson Confirms Morbius is in The MCU

UPDATE: Sony has now issued a statement walking back Gibson’s comments. According to the studio, Morbius is not in the MCU, and it’s keeping its current January release date. Our story as it initially appeared is below.

ORIGINAL STORY: Tyrese Gibson has been a part of the Fast & Furious franchise since its second installment. As F9 gears up to bow in theaters later this month, the cast of these movies is already looking toward the end as pre-production on the final two Fast chapters is already underway. Gibson, however, has already locked in what could be his next franchise. The actor is among the cast of Morbius, a Marvel movie made by Sony which stars Jared Leto and initially appeared to be in its own separate canon. Then, a trailer for the movie dropped and saw Michael Keaton reprising his Adrian Toomes role from the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s Spider-Man: Homecoming. Now, Gibson tells ComicBook.com Morbius is in the MCU.

Talking to ComicBook.com ahead of F9‘s release, Gibson was asked if Morbius is a part of the MCU. “Yes,” he said, simply. To be sure, we went ahead and clarified: Are the Avengers a part of this world? “Yes,” the actor affirmed. It’s the first time somebody has definitively ruled on this subject one way or the other and certainly an interesting development as Morbius is billed as, “In Association with Marvel,” in its trailer, a typical distinction from MCU-driver Marvel Studios.

See the confirmation from Tyrese Gibson in the video from the tweet below! It is tweeted by the Phase Zero account, the official Twitter for ComicBook.com’s MCU podcast.

Morbius is a long-time Spider-Man villain but a character who interacts with many other Marvel characters in comics and animated shows. One of those characters in Blade, a Daywalker soon to be brought to life by Mahershala Ali for the MCU’s Blade movie. Rumors and speculation have long swirled about whether or not Leto’s Morbius would be a part of the MCU, much like Tom Hardy’s Venom. Until now, the most concrete evidence was the connection of Keaton being in the Sony film but there is also a photo of Spider-Man (one which is in line with the Sam Raimi trilogy’s suit as it appeared in the Spider-Man game for PS4) labeled “murderer” in the same trailer.

“Well, doing this movie opposite Jared Leto, man, was nerve wrecking, exciting, and inspiring,” Gibson said of Morbius. “He’s really, really interesting, this guy, to work with. [Director] Daniel Espinosa kept me nervous the whole time as well. He’s a real alpha, very aggressive filmmaker. He’s very honest so he’ll tell you… He’ll tell you, sometimes, things you don’t want to hear about how to step your game up as an actor and he did it to everybody. He pulled some great performances out of everybody. I don’t know, man, I think a lot of people are gonna be shocked. They just pushed the movie to October because they want to take advantage of that Halloween energy. It’s gonna be a long year, man, of a lot of magic happening out here.”

Earlier this year, Morbius was pushed to October. It was then delayed again and will now release in January of 2022.

Are you looking forward to Morbius? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram! Morbius is scheduled to hit theaters on January 28, 2022. Gibson’s F9 hits theaters on June 25!