How Spider-Man: No Way Home Changed Morbius (Exclusive)

Morbius has been subjected to many delays since its first trailer dropped in January of 2020. A theater shutdown and other causes have pushed the film back to a final release date of April 1, 2022. However, one recent delay saw the film pushed back to this new date when it looked like it was going to hit theaters on January 21, just a few weeks after Spider-Man: No Way Home. This most recent Morbius delay prompted fans to suspect there may be some last minute changes being made to the film to build on the massive success of the Spider-Man success and there may be some truth to that, as Morbius director Daniel Espinosa tells it.

“Yes and no,” Espinosa tells ComicBook.com when asked if the crew went back to work following Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s success. “You know, because the idea of the kind of parallel universes was really introduced, not into the kind of Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it was introduced within the, within cinema, if you’d call it in Spider-Verse, which was released by Sony and, you know produced by Avi Arad, who also produced Morbius. So the concept of, you know, of starting to work with, you know, parallel kind of verses was something that existed prior to the Spider-Man movie. And it’s also been something that has existed for years in comic books. You know, us who read comic books, we knew about it, you know for like 15 or 20 years, you know, as soon as the kind of clone era died with Spider-Man, you know, the verses kind kind of took a hold. And so, but when Spider-Man came there were certain kind of visual elements of how those kind of transitions looked like that were informative.”

There is no official word on whether or not a Spider-Man will show up in Morbius or the Venom movies which are also produced by Sony. However, Tom Hardy’s Venom recently traveled to the Marvel Cinematic Universe where Tom Holland’s Spider-Man exists but was just as quickly transported out of it and back to his own universe before any Spider-Man encounters took place. Morbius does not involve Marvel Studios in the creative process of developing the film, unlike Spider-Man: No Way Home which was a collaboration between Sony and Marvel Studios for the story to be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s canon.

Speaking to ComicBook.com in an interview which premiered on the MCU podcast Phase Zero, Morbius star Jared Leto shared his perspective on which Spider-Man he hopes to see Morbius come face to face with. “Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ll take ’em all my friend, I’ll take ’em all,” Leto said. “I’m not scare! I’m not scared, but I have to say, there’s something about Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Morbius being a new chapter in universe that seems quite fitting. And I would love to see them get in the ring with one another, these two characters. And I think Tom’s just, like, you know, done a phenomenal job. And he’s a great actor and he just brings a lot of energy and humor to the role that’s great.”

Do you want to see Spider-Man square up with a vampire? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram! Morbius hits theaters on April 1.