Jared Leto has been cast as Morbius the Living Vampire for Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off universe.
The actor confirmed the Morbius casting on social media by posting artwork of the comic book character.
— JARED LETO (@JaredLeto) June 27, 2018
The Morbius the Living Vampire movie is being directed by Daniel Espinosa who is known for Safe House, Child 44 and Life, which starred Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, the duo behind the Netflix Lost In Space series, are writing the script, with Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach and Lucas Foster producing.
It’s being reported that Jared Leto getting cast as Morbius will not impact his role as the Joker for the DC Universe, and Leto is also still attached to a sequel for Tron.
In the comics, Morbius the Living Vampire is at times an enemy of Spider-Man and at times a friend. The character is more of an anti-hero, which is the route we can assume Sony is going to take (similar to Tom Hardy as Venom). Here is a description: Dr. Michael Morbius is a scientist who suffers from a rare blood disease and attempts to cure himself to disastrous results. He instead becomes afflicted with a condition that is a form of vampirism — the thirst for blood, along with fangs and super strength — and fights Spider-Man. Over time, however, Morbius becomes a slightly heroic figure in his own right (aka an anti-hero).
Jared Leto being cast follows the recent news of a Silk Spider-Man spinoff being developed, with Venom coming out in October and projects in development for Silver and Black (Silver Sable and Black Cat) and Nightwatch.
Check out Jared Leto as Morbius fan art:
Hearing the news about @JaredLeto as #morbius at first I was like then I was excited, let’s see what he brings to the #Marvel world! pic.twitter.com/WcJheMkLvA
— BossLogic (@Bosslogic) June 28, 2018