The next Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU) movie is Morbius, a film that has already been delayed several times. It’s coming out on April 1st, so we’re in the final stretch of marketing for the new SSU release. That also means Sony has been doing its best to link Morbius (Jared Leto) to the MCU’s Spider-Man (Tom Holland). It’s Sony’s best bet for making fans who aren’t familiar with the comics want to see the film in theaters as soon as it releases.
We’ve seen this before with Venom: Let There Be Carnage, when Sony did everything it could to ensure the film’s post-credits scene leaked ahead of the film’s theatrical release. There’s no denying that the Venom–No Way Home link paid off. But you shouldn’t expect the same sort of connection between Morbius and Spider-Man. Before we can talk about the upcoming SSU release, you should know that some spoilers might follow below.
Is Morbius part of the MCU?
The only way the SSU works for Sony is if the studio links all the movies based on the Spider-Man IP it controls to the more successful MCU. It’s one thing to tell a standalone Venom story, but a lot more challenging to sell a standalone Morbius story.
Marvel’s MCU is what made Sony’s latest Spider-Man trilogy so successful. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man got to play with the Avengers, who were all of a sudden more popular superheroes capable of drawing much bigger crowds.
As a result, any MCU-adjacent property will elicit interest from fans who have closely followed the evolution of this universe.
With that in mind, Morbius isn’t technically part of the MCU. It’s just a character from Sony’s nascent SSU. However, Sony achieved something a lot bigger with No Way Home that a massive payday. The movie links the SSU to the MCU. The previous Spider-Man stories are now part of the multiverse of Marvel stories.
Put differently, Marvel focuses on the primary reality in the MCU, while Sony is free to explore other parallel realities that do not have to intersect with the MCU heroes. And the SSU will only feature Spider-Man-related characters. But the SSU-MCU links imply that future crossovers are possible. The Spider-Man: No Way Home story is one such example.
With that in mind, linking Morbius to Spider-Man is an obvious Sony marketing objective. It’s the kind of strategy that can draw additional ticket sales.
All the Spider-Man clues in Morbius marketing
Sony might be telling us that Morbius is part of the bigger multiverse, but that doesn’t mean Spider-Man will appear in this story. Or that Jared Leto’s Morbius will get to interact with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man anytime soon.
The Morbius trailers included plenty of Easter eggs for fans to connect the movie to the MCU’s Spider-Man. We saw the Daily Bugle, the Spider-Man “murderer” graffiti, and the references to Venom so far. Best of all, we saw Michael Keaton’s Vulture in them. That’s the first villain that the MCU’s Spider-Man had to face.
Even plot leaks teased the Morbius-Spider-Man connection.
The implication was absolutely clear. Morbius is supposed to be a standalone story about this unknown superhero type of character. But Morbius is bound to meet some of the other Spider-Man villains. And he might even be part of the universe of stories you want it to be.
But it might all be misleading
The most recent proof that Sony wants the audience to connect Morbius to Spider-Man comes in the form of a vignette that Sony just posted on YouTube to promote the upcoming movie. And Sony continues to stress the multiverse and the connections to Spider-Man and Venom.
Marvel likes to mislead fans with its MCU trailers, and that’s what Sony might be doing. We might see Morbius interact with a Spider-Man variant down the road. And, who knows, he might appear in the MCU in some form in the future. But Morbius will tell a story from a specific universe.
That’s according to leaks from insiders familiar with the matter. Apparently, some scenes connecting Morbius to Spider-Man were cut from the film. Those are scenes that we saw in the trailers pictured above.
Moreover, the Vulture appearances might have been cut significantly as well. According to MyTimeToShineHello, Keaton’s Vulture will show up only in a post-credits scene.
The same leaker claimed in a follow-up that Morbius happens in its own universe. If real, then we might always have a different Spider-Man show up in this universe.
All of that isn’t to say that Morbius can’t stand on its own. Or that it’s not a movie worth seeing in theaters next week. But you should temper your Spider-Man expectations.
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