Morbius: Jared Leto to play lead role of vampire doctor in Spider-Man spin-off
After playing the Joker in DC's 'Suicide Squad', Jared Leto will now be seen as the anti-hero Morbius from the 'Spider-Man' franchise. The movie will be directed by Daniel Espinosa (known for his work on 'Safe House') and is being written by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama. It is being co-produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach along with Lucas Foster and Sony's Palak Patel who will be overseeing the studio.
According to Variety, in spite of being loosely attached to the project, Leto hadn't entirely confirmed his commitment for some time until he was assured that the film was headed in the right direction. He had asked to meet with several filmmakers who were up for the job. Reportedly, Espinosa met with Leto last month in Germany while Leto was touring with his band 'Thirty Seconds to Mars', and Leto eventually agreed to play the role.
Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane, the character of Morbius first appeared in the 1971 issue of the 'Amazing Spider-Man #101' as Doctor Michael Morbius. A Nobel Prize-winning biochemist from Germany, Morbius suffered from a debilitating blood disease for which he experimented with a treatment involving vampire bats and electroshocks.
As a side effect, it turned him into a pseudo-vampire who sucked blood to survive and developed some typical vampire-like characteristics such as an aversion to sunlight. When he first experienced a change in appearance by developing fangs and pale skin, his first victim would be the assistant who had helped him develop the treatment.
Morbius met Spider-Man at a time when the hero was trying to reverse the process which had given him six arms. Their battle was interrupted by Dr. Connors, the Lizard, who later teamed up with Spider-Man to extract Morbius's blood as using it as a cure for Connor to remain in his human state and for Spider-Man to lose his additional arms.
Morbius also has a brief confrontation with the X-Men when Charles Xavier sends out his X-Men to capture Morbius on learning about Jorgenson's (the assistant) death. Following a long battle, the X-Men were able to defeat Morbius.
According to Broadway World, this will be Leto's second foray in a comic book role. The actor has previously earned an Oscar for his role in 'Dallas Buyers Club', for which he underwent a dramatic weight loss of 30 pounds. He is also known for his roles in 'Blade Runner 2049', 'Requiem for a Dream', and 'Fight Club'. He was most recently seen in Netflix's 'The Outsider'. The actor is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment.
