Jared Leto has reportedly been tapped to portray comic book villain Morbius in a Spider-Man spin-off.
The Oscar-winning actor will take on the titular character in Life director Daniel Espinosa's new movie. According to Variety, he had been loosely attached to the project for a while, but only committed to it after meeting the filmmakers who were up for the job and making sure the movie was heading in the right direction. He reportedly met with Espinosa in Germany last month (May18) while he was on tour with his band Thirty Seconds to Mars.
Morbius was created for The Amazing Spider-Man comics in 1971 and made infrequent appearances over the years until 1992, when the character was revived in the Morbius, the Living Vampire series, which run until 1995.
In the comics, Morbius is a scientist who develops vampire-like traits, such as fangs and a thirst for blood, and superhuman abilities following a failed biochemical experiment in which he tried to cure himself of a blood disease.
This would mark Leto's second time portraying a comic book villain - he previously played The Joker in the 2016 DC Comics movie Suicide Squad, a role he is thought to be reprising in a standalone Joker film, and a possible spin-off starring the Joker and Harley Quinn.
The Morbius film is being written by screenwriting duo Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, known for Dracula Untold and Netflix series Lost in Space. It will be produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach with Lucas Foster.
The film has not been given a release date, but it set to go into production later this year. It will likely be another instalment in Sony's Marvel Universe, a rival to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) owned by Disney. Sony's version kicks off in October with Spider-Man spin-off Venom, starring Tom Hardy, Riz Ahmed, and Michelle Williams.
Sony owns the rights to the Spider-Man world, but bosses reached a deal with Disney in 2015 so the character, portrayed by Tom Holland, could appear Captain America: Civil War and subsequent Avengers movies. Holland is preparing to film standalone Spider-Man sequel Far From Home.
