Morbius movie release date is delayed by one week in January 2022. Originally a nemesis of Spider-Man, Dr. Michael Morbius aka "The Living Vampire" later went on to become a tragic antihero appearing in multiple Marvel books. The original Blade was then supposed to mark Morbius' cinematic debut but his cameo was ultimately deleted. Guillermo Del Toro then tried to use Morbius in Blade II but was denied rights to the character.

Now with Marvel dominating seemingly every level of entertainment from movies on down, Morbius is finally getting his chance to suffer on the big screen. Jared Leto takes on the role of the tortured biochemist whose attempts to cure his own blood disorder cause him to acquire supernatural abilities like those of a vampire. Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal and Tyrese Gibson also star in the Sony Morbius film directed by Daniel Espinosa.

Related: Everything You Need To Know About Morbius

Fans of Morbius have indeed been waiting a long time to see the character make the leap to movie screens, and now they’ll be asked to wait just a little longer as Morbius has been delayed by one week. As announced by Sony and Marvel, the film has been shifted from its previously set January 21, 2022 release date to January 28, 2022. The film was of course originally slated to come out in July of 2020 but COVID pushed it back several times, finally landing it in January of 2022.

Jared Leto Morbius

The new January 28, 2022 release date puts Morbius up against Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone, a horror film starring Ethan Hawke and produced by Blumhouse. Morbius itself has plenty of horror elements so it will be interesting to see if both it and The Black Phone do come out in the same weekend, as they would seem to be drawing from the same pool of horror fans. Morbius of course has the advantage of being a Marvel title with a significant following. Leto being at the head of the cast also presumably gives the movie an advantage as there are many devotees of dark comic book movies who enjoy his interpretations of the Joker in Suicide Squad and the Snyder Cut of Justice League.

Indeed Morbius according to Leto is more than just a dark comic book movie in the vein of Blade, but is in fact a “fun popcorn movie” despite its scarier elements. Sony of course had a great success blending dark and “fun” with Venom, and are obviously hoping to repeat that success with Venom 2. It remains to be seen if Morbius can break through and be a hit the size of Venom. The film certainly has a lot of things going for it, including Leto’s presence and the Marvel branding. On the other hand, making a “fun popcorn movie” out of something as inherently dark and horror-tinged as Morbius might be too tall an order, leading to a movie that pleases neither general audiences nor Morbius fanatics.

More: Morbius Movie Trailer Breakdown & MCU Story Reveals

Source: Sony/Marvel

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