Jared Leto Teases Morbius as Friend or Foe for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man

Jared Leto’s living vampire isn’t sinking his teeth into the Marvel Cinematic Universe just yet, but the Morbius star already has a taste for Spider-Man. Sony and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: No Way Home opened the Marvel Multiverse for a crossover with Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, home to Leto’s anti-hero vampire and Tom Hardy’s Venom. In a new interview, Leto revealed what might happen if — or when — Morbius meets Tom Holland’s Spider-Man somewhere in the Spider-Verse: 

“I don’t know. It might look like a tasty treat, or could be a threat. It depends,” Leto told Jake’s Takes when asked what reaction Morbius might have to Spider-Man. “In the circumstances it could be — you never know — a friend. It would be fun to go head-to-head with some of these amazing characters that these amazing actors have brought to life. You never know what’s in store.” 

Though Holland’s web-slinger won’t be swinging into Morbius, director Daniel Espinosa says “of course” there’s a Spider-Man in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. (An early trailer for Morbius revealed a poster of the wall-crawler defaced with the word “murderer,” seemingly referencing the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home.) 

“In almost all the Spider-Verse or, you know, the [universes] that existed in the Marvel universe, if you read the comic books, the whole idea of that kind of – the Marvel string theory, if you would call it that,” Espinosa told CinemaBlend of the Multiverse. “You have a world where you have the same characters, and it’s all of the characters, but they are slightly different.” 

Espinosa continued, “So in almost all verses, you have Spider-Man, or a Fantastic Four, or a Tony Stark, or a Morbius. But they will be different in tone. That’s not quite the way that the Marvel Cinematic Universe [is] approaching the idea, but they’re remaining to some core truth. Then you have the second kind of legend, which is about the totem. Which is that, in all universes, there is a spider totem. Which means that in all universes, there has to be a Spider-Man. Or a Spider-Woman.”

One of Marvel’s most compelling and conflicted characters comes to the big screen as Oscar winner Jared Leto transforms into the enigmatic antihero, Michael Morbius. Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder, and determined to save others suffering his same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts a desperate gamble. What at first appears to be a radical success soon reveals itself to be a remedy potentially worse than the disease.

Starring Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Al Madrigal, Tyrese Gibson, and Jared Harris, Sony’s Morbius is playing exclusively in movie theaters on April 1.