Morbius is set to take center stage as the next project of Sony's Marvel universe. The upcoming movie will showcase the Marvel debut of Jared Leto as the titular living vampire. In the comics, Morbius is a Spider-Man villain, but the film will portray the character as an anti-hero instead, similar to what Sony is doing with Tom Hardy's Venom.
Marketing for Morbius has been on and off in the past year due to the film's continued delays. However, once the film set an April 2022 release timeline, the promotional push has ramped up, with Sony Pictures unveiling its final trailer packed with MCU Spider-Man connections.
In addition to the trailer, the studio has been hard at work revealing more promotional footage and interviews for Morbius.
Now, another unique marketing approach for the movie has been released.
Daily Bugle Promotes Morbius
The Daily Bugle's official TikTok account, which is operated by Sony Pictures' marketing team, posted a video to promote Sony's Morbius, featuring a new reporter in place of Angourie Rice's Betty Brant.
In No Way Home's promotional push, Brant served as the main reporter tasked to cover the aftermath of Peter Parker's Spider-Man secret being revealed to the rest of the world.
In the Morbius-centered TikTok video, Brant was replaced by Nicque Marina, a social correspondent from the Bugle.
First, Marina admitted that working for the Bugle is an "unusually hazardous job," but she pointed out that a "paycheck is a paycheck."
The young reporter shared the news that Leto's Michael Morbius recently rejected a "very prestigious" science award. Alongside the report, Marina also revealed three fast facts about the famous blood doctor.
Marina unveiled that Dr. Morbius is one of the world's leading experts in blood diseases, director of the Horizon Labs, and the inventor of synthetic blood. The tidbit about the synthetic blood made Marina say that it could either be "very helpful or disastrous" at the end of the day.
The full TikTok video can be seen below:
Is Morbius Set in the MCU?
In the past two years, one of the burning questions about Morbius is its place in the vast Multiverse. The film's first trailer featured Michael Keaton's Adrian Toomes from Spider-Man: Homecoming, leading fans to believe that it is set in the MCU. However, the second trailer included an Easter egg tied to Hardy's Venom universe, thus raising more questions than answers.
This latest TikTok video might fuel discussions about Morbius' MCU connections again, mainly because it uses the same promotional social media account from Spider-Man: No Way Home. Meanwhile, the fast facts about Michael Morbius should give fans a preview of what to expect about the character when he debuts in his upcoming solo film.
However, it's evident that the video uses a different Daily Bugle logo, which could indicate that the film is set in a different universe. The said logo is similar to the one used by Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man trilogy, potentially hinting that the Raimiverse could be revisited through Morbius.
This isn't the first time that Maguire's web-slinger was referenced in Morbius' marketing since the first trailer included a shot of graffiti of Spider-Man, which has a similar costume design to the Raimiverse version.
Whatever the case, all will be revealed when Morbius premieres in theaters on April 1.
