Jared Leto says his upcoming superhero movie Morbius will take a scary approach to the genre, but says it's still a big, fun popcorn movie. Leto's first outing as the lead in a superhero movie, following his turn as the villain Joker in Suicide Squad, is currently scheduled to be released on March 19, 2021, after being delayed from its summer 2020 slot due to the coronavirus pandemic. Morbius follows Tom Hardy's Venom as the second movie in what's been dubbed the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters.
There has been little recent news about Morbius, despite the release date being less than three months away now, besides small snippets being released by the cast. Leto himself recently said that the movie would mark the start of an expanding Spider-Man movie universe, teasing the hero himself might eventually appear alongside a rouge's gallery of villains from the Sony movies. Morbius will tell the origin story of the character dubbed the living vampire. The cast will include Matt Smith, Tyrese Gibson, Jared Harris, and Michael Keaton in an appearance many suspect will see him reprising the role of Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Leto has revealed more about the movie to Variety in a recent podcast episode, teasing that the film will take a different approach from most superhero movies. Looking ahead to the movie's release, Leto says besides being "big and fun," Morbius is also quite scary, something he believes is a departure from most films in the genre. The actor also teases that it's a "Jekyll and Hyde" story, hinting at the transformation his character goes through, from scientist to vampire. You can read his full comments from the podcast below:
[Morbius is] a Jekyll and Hyde story that’s just big and fun, and sometimes is a little scary, which is, I think, different for that genre. And I’m excited about it. That should be a big, fun popcorn movie.
Leto's words will give comic book fans hope that the source material won't be watered down too much. The character's approach is fairly dark in the comics, and a movie adaptation would need to include elements that will scare audiences. Hopefully, those scary moments are powerful enough to make Morbius stand out from the superhero crowd. The early signs for this movie haven't been great, with an underwhelming teaser trailer that made its tone look a little too similar to that of Venom.
There's also how the movie will attract wider audiences, focusing as it does on a character that isn't well known to movie fans and featuring Leto, who in the past hasn't been seen as a major leading man box office draw. Morbius is up against it from the start, then. Still, if it can surprise audiences by offering something different from the standard superhero fare, as Leto says it does, it could well end up making good money when it releases.
Source: Variety
