Jared Leto's 'Morbius' could be a great film but it's unlikely to sustain a franchise of its own
After the box office success of 'Venom', Sony is expanding its universe of Marvel characters with 'Morbius' starring Jared Leto as the titular vampire anti-hero. However, while a sequel for 'Venom' is already in the works, a 'Morbius' franchise might not be the best idea.
Michael Morbius is fundamentally a normal dude who just happens to need to drink people's blood to survive. That's the whole crux of the character and in an interview with IGN, Leto said that this was what attracted him to the project in the first place.
"There's a line in the film where Morbius says that he's been dying his entire life and now feels more alive than ever. And I think that sums it up," Leto explained. "Here's someone who's been afflicted with this horrendous disease and has had all kinds of challenges and has been in pursuit of this cure. And then all of a sudden has this power and this physical strength, which is all incredible, but there is a flip side to it as well. There's a dark side. So that battle between the light and dark is something that he fights throughout the film."
Now there's plenty of potential for a great standalone movie but can 'Morbius' sustain a film series of his own? Perhaps, not.
With 'Morbius', Marvel Comics was essentially trying to do something new with vampires, at a time when vampiric characters were quite rare in comics. By giving his powers a sci-fi origin instead of basing it in magic, Marvel managed to create a unique character but in the modern era, where vampires are a dime a dozen, the whole "living vampire" shtick loses its novelty pretty quickly.
It's not like the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to be starved of vampires either with a 'Blade' movie in the works starring Mahershala Ali as the titular vampire who hunts vampires. Besides, Morbius has always been more enjoyable when he has other characters to bounce off of. He'd be an excellent addition to a 'Sinister Six' movie or perhaps even a 'Midnight Sons' movie but on his own, there's only so many things you can do with the character.
'Morbius' is scheduled to arrive in theaters on July 31.