Matt Smith is going from a galaxy far, far away to Sony’s universe of Marvel characters. Smith, who will appear in Star Wars: Episode IX, is joining Jared Leto in Marvel’s Morbius. Character details are unknown for Smith, who is known for his work on Doctor Who and The Crown.
Morbius has been an interesting project from day one. It is the second Spider-Man spinoff that focuses on one of Peter Parker’s nemeses after Ruben Fleischer’s Venom with Tom Hardy. Directed by Daniel Espinosa, the film will star Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a scientist who suffered from a rare blood disease and attempted to cure himself — but ended up turning himself into a vampire. In the comics, he gained super strength and fangs, and wound up fighting Spider-Man, until eventually becoming something of a hero himself. Pacific Rim: Uprising’s Adria Arjona has also been cast as Morbius’ love interest, Martine Bancroft.
Morbius is just the latest entry in Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters, capitalizing off of the success of last year’s Venom. Solo films for Black Cat, Silver Sable, and Jackpot are also in development at the studio.
It’s interesting that Morbius is still casting what appears to be a major role for the film so close to the beginning of principal photography. It would be careless to assume whether his casting is a positive turn of events or signs of production trouble for the film. As for now, a release date for Morbius is still unknown, nor has it been revealed whether Morbius will feature any tie-ins or Easter eggs referencing the current Spider-Man franchise starring Tom Holland. If it’s anything like Venom, it’ll likely keep a close focus on its titular character without mentioning Spider-Man at all.
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