Spider-Man has one of the largest, weirdest rogues galleries in comics history. This means Sony’s in a particularly interesting position when it comes to using its film rights in clever ways to build a comic-book movie universe to rival the MCU. Venom, Black Cat, and Silver Sable are all on their way to the big screen, and according to a new report, they’ll soon be joined by Morbius, the living vampire.
Today, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Sony’s working on a Morbius film to be written by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, the writing duo behind this year’s Power Rangers film. No other details about the movie have yet been confirmed other than that—like Sony’s other non-Marvel films—Morbius will not feature Tom Holland as Spider-Man.
Morbius was first introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 in 1971, the same year that the Comics Code Authority finally lifted its ridiculous ban on supernatural characters like vampires. Once a famed biochemist, Dr. Michael Morbius is transformed into a vampire-like creature after undergoing a failed experimental treatment to cure himself of a rare blood disorder. The accident leaves Morbius with a number of vampiric traits, like needing to drink the blood of others, super strength, and increased speed, without most of the religion-based weaknesses vampires traditionally have.
Though he starts off as a Spidey-foe, Morbius came into his own as an antihero over the years, and the idea of a crime fighting vampire patrolling the streets of [insert city here] does have a certain appeal. At the same time, though, Morbius isn’t exactly known for being the most fascinating of Marvel’s characters—and Sony still hasn’t really convinced anyone that these Peter Parker-less movies are actually going to work on their own.