Why The Final Morbius Trailer Has Spider-Man Fans Scratching Their Heads
When the hype train starts rolling for an all-new comic book film, a commonly asked question is how it connects to others. Whether Marvel's cinematic one or the stilted DC version that Snyder fans pushed for, world-building has and still is the name of the game. Judging by the new "Morbius" trailer, Jared Leto's long-in-the-tooth antihero is trying his clawed, grey hand at it with Easter eggs aplenty in the new preview. Most notably, there are references to everyone's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Leto himself described "Morbius" as opening a "web of opportunity" in a recent featurette, and it's clear from certain shots in the trailer that looks to be the case. With conversations with Michael Keaton's Vulture, the Oscorp building lighting the night sky, and the web-slinger plastered on a wall, branded a "murderer," there's no doubt that Sony is trying to integrate "The Living Vampire" with Spider-Man. The only thing that has fans baffled is, which Spider-Man exactly?
Morbius weaves a tangled web for fans
As great as it is for comic book fans to spot intentional bits of comic-related goodness, what's on show so far feels like a mish-mash of just about every Spider-Man property going. For example, the aforementioned bit of artwork on the wall, while potentially referring to Tom Holland's avenging arachnid (whom we last saw framed for the murder of Mysterio), is actually a still from the PS4 "Spider-Man" game (via IGN). As far as locations go, the Oscorp building, while making an apparent reference to Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, is adorned with the same logo used in Andrew Garfield's "Amazing Spider-Man" stint. There's also the final gag in the trailer as Morbius refers to Tom Hardy's inky body snatcher, "Venom," who himself acknowledged Holland's Peter Parker in the "Let There Be Carnage" post-credit scene.
It's certainly something that isn't going overlooked by fans, who have already highlighted their observations of a world that seems a bit lost. Following the trailer release, DOOM Studios pitched their take on how Sony would answer the burning questions in the YouTube comments, with "Spider-Man fans: Is this Tobey, Andrew's or Tom's universe?" and a hypothetical answer came from Sony: "Everything combined." So far, it's a reasonably accurate response, but perhaps coming events could finally clear things up with a simple split of the multiverse.
Does Morbius take place before or after No Way Home?
Given that we know Doctor Strange will cause a tear in reality after a request from Tom Holland's Spidey, is this mangling of worlds all a byproduct of an impending spell gone wrong? The basket of Easter eggs on show in the "Morbius" trailer alone is far too jumbled to be unintentional, and could make more sense once we see "No Way Home" in December. When that happens, references to three different film franchises that have yet to interact with one another could be easier to process, and with any luck, they should feel less like a fumbled case of fan service.
For now, we can only wait and wonder how this will all pan out when Jared Leto descends on cinemas as "Morbius." That film arrives in January 2022, and "Spider-Man: No Way Home" finally arrives this year on December 17.