Morbius Director Seemingly Spoils Cameo by Tom Hardy's Venom

08/09/2021 04:30 pm EDT

Morbius director Daniel Espinosa appears to reveal Venom actor Tom Hardy is swinging into Sony's Spider-Man spin-off movie. The first trailer for Morbius, starring Suicide Squad's Jared Leto as the living vampire anti-hero from the Marvel comic books, teased a Spidey villain team-up with Michael Keaton reprising his role as Adrian "the Vulture" Toomes from Spider-Man: Homecoming. Ahead of Eddie Brock's return to the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the Swedish filmmaker seemingly spoils another mini crossover when Morbius takes a bite out of theaters in January:

"It usually feels strange before the day begins, when you look at the schedule and stand on the set yourself," Espinosa said in a translated interview with Swedish site MovieZine when asked about directing big stars outside of smaller movies. "When you walk around there, the recording looks just like a Swedish production, but then when you look at the schedule and read names like Michael Keaton, Jared Leto, Tom Hardy, then it feels cool and very exciting. But once you start working, it's exactly the same thing. An actor wants a director and actors want to be directed."

Espinosa previously directed Hardy in his 2015 mystery-thriller Child 44. Mentioning Hardy alongside his Morbius actors Leto and Keaton raises the question: is Eddie Brock in Morbius?

A rumored Morbius plot leak that surfaced online early last year claimed that — spoilers? — Toomes' fellow Homecoming inmate Mac Gargan (Michael Mando) breaks out of prison with Venom 2 villain Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson), but the latest trailer for Let There Be Carnage shows the serial killer escaping in that movie when he gets a taste of Brock's symbiote. Both movies take place in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters, which appears to be somehow adjacent to Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Sony Pictures President Sanford Panitch previously hinted that Spider-Man: No Way Home would explain the link between Sony and Marvel's universes, saying "there actually is a plan" to connect the two.)

Venom 2 director Andy Serkis seemed to hint at other Spider-Man villains appearing in Let There Be Carnage when Brock visits the Ravencroft Institute for the criminally insane. The sequel is currently scheduled to open only in theaters on September 24.

Morbius, starring Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, and Tyrese Gibson, opens in theaters on January 28, 2022.

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