For years, the live-action Spider-Verse has been a tangled web.
While the web-slinger is one of Marvel's most popular heroes, and Tom Holland's Peter Parker is part of the MCU, Sony - not Marvel Studios - owns the rights to the character and has been busy constructing a Spider-Man universe of its own.
Following Tom Hardy's Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the next Sony-Spidey film is the studio's long-awaited vampire flick Morbius.
Directed by Daniel Espinosa, Morbius stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius who infects himself with vampirism while attempting to cure himself of a blood disease.
Due to COVID-19, the film was bumped to a January of 2022 release, making its theatrical debut just weeks after Spider-Man: No Way Home arrives on the big screen on December 17, 2021; and considering Tom Holland's Spidey is expected to swing between the two studios, that back-to-back release might be by design.
Morbius' Spider "Web" of Connections
In a new featurette for Morbius, Jared Leto teased the 2022 film's possible connections to Spider-Man, claiming "there's a web of opportunity."
In addition, the video also included a shot of Spider-Man's J.Jonah Jameson's newspaper, The Daily Bugle.
The featurette also included new footage from the film in addition to commentary from Leto about his character, saying "His powers seem to be out of his control" and describing Dr. Michael Morbius as a "superhero, supervillain."
Morbius' long-awaited second trailer is expected to drop on November 2, 2021.
The featurette can be seen below:
Morbius will debut exclusively in theaters.
Morbius Key to Sony's Spider-Man Plans?
This new featurette for Marvel and Sony's vampire flick isn't the first to reference Spider-Man.
Morbius' first trailer, which dropped in early 2020, included a shot of a mural of the MCU's Spider-Man that had been graffitied with the word "Murderer," and Michael Keaton's Vulture also made a cameo and is listed as part of the cast.
In addition, Venom: Let There Be Carnage made Sony's Spider-Man crossover plans official in its spoilery post-credit scene.
It's possible that Morbius will be the film to bring these various characters and franchises together, as back in August, Morbius director Daniel Espinosa let it slip that Venom's Tom Hardy was on the schedule along with Keaton and Leto.
Still, it's also possible that Hardy's Venom or Leto's Morbius appears in No Way Home or is referenced in some way, especially since the Spider-Man threequel is reportedly missing one Sinister Six villain.
While Marvel fans have been focused on who will appear in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Morbius's second trailer - and the film itself - deserves attention as well and could be key in showing audiences what the future holds for the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to debut on December 17, 2021, followed by Morbius on January 28, 2022.
