Tyrese Gibson is no stranger to franchises, having appeared in a handful of Transformers movies and continuing to play Roman Pearce in the Fast & Furious world. However, now years after he campaigned to play Green Lantern, Gibson is finally stepping into the world of superhero movies. He was cast to play Simon Stroud in Sony’s Morbius, the second entry in the studio’s live-action Marvel universe populated with Spider-Man characters.
Like his comic book counterpart, Tyrese Gibson’s Simon Stroud is a government agent, only rather than working for the CIA, he’ll be hunting down Jared Leto’s Michael Morbius on behalf of the FBI. Here’s what Gibson recently had to say about what else we can expect from his character:
My character was originally white, and they made him black. But I like to say he was a white guy who got a really good tan. That arm has all kinds of special effects and powers, and that’s going to mess people up when they see this movie. It’s my first time ever officially being a superhero. I’ve done some superhero shit, but I ain’t never been a superhero. I had to explain this to my daughter.
Well, well, it looks like Winter Soldier has some competition in the artificial appendage department. Per Tyrese Gibson’s comments to Maxim, Simon Stroud clearly is well-armed (pun fully intended), and if you’re chasing after a scientist who’s become a vampire, unconventional weaponry surely will come in hand (I’m sorry, I can’t help myself). We caught a glimpse of Simon and his weird-looking arm in the first Morbius trailer, but nothing was said about it at the time.
What exactly is this arm capable of? That’s hard to say since Simon Stroud in the Marvel Comics universe doesn’t sport a high-tech arm packed with weapons. So this is one aspect of Morbius that’s delving into uncharted territory; ideally whenever the next Morbius trailer comes out, there will be a snippet of Simon in action showing off at least one of the things his arm can do.
Michael Morbius’ origin story will unfold quite similarly to how it did in the comics, with the scientist suffering from a rare blood disease that he attempts to cure. Although he’s eventually successful, the downside is that he becomes afflicted with a form of vampirism that grants him special abilities, but an unquenchable thirst for blood and none of the weaknesses that traditional vampires have.
One can imagine that once Michael Morbius starts causing trouble in his vampiric form, that’s when Simon Stroud will start tracking him down, with his partner Alberto Rodriguez, played by Al Madrigal, by his side. Morbius’ cast also includes Adria Arjona as Martine Bancroft, Michael’s fiancée, Matt Smith as Loxias Crown, Michael’s friend who suffers from the same blood disease; and Jared Harris as Michael’s yet-to-be-named mentor. Oh, and let’s not forget Michael Keaton, who many believe is reprising his Spider-Man: Homecoming role of Adrian Toomes, a.k.a. The Vulture, but that hasn’t been officially confirmed yet.
Morbius was expected to come out on July 31, but it’s since been pushed back to March 19, 2021. Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates about the movie, and learn what else has been delayed recently with our detailed guide.
