Actor Michael Keaton has had a long and successful career in film. And as the superhero genre continues to dominate the industry, Keaton has a few comic book roles. This includes playing the villainous Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming. And Keaton had an A+ reaction to filming his recent role in Jared Leto’s Morbius.
Spider-Man’s place in the MCU is a unique one, as Marvel and Sony have a strange joint custody agreement over the iconography of Spidey and his villains. Fans were thrilled to learn that Michael Keaton would be reprising his role as Vulture in the Morbius movie, although it turns out that the inner workings of cinematic universes might go over the actor’s head. As he recently put it,
I’m nodding like I know what the fuck they’re talking about. I go, ‘Uh-huh.’ And I’m thinking, ‘You may as well be explaining quantum physics right now to me. All I know is I just know my guy. And I know the basics.’ So finally, they were looking at me, and they just started laughing. They said, ‘You don’t know what we’re talking about, do you?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t, no idea what you’re talking about.’
Well, that was honest. It looks like Michael Keaton might be a bit lost in the lore of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Spider-Man’s journey on the page and screen. Instead, the Birdman actor focused on his job bringing Adrian Toomes/ Vulture to life. We’ll just have to see how much of a presence he actually has in Morbius
Michael Keaton’s comments to THR help to show what it’s really like working on comic book projects like Morbius. Keaton is just one cog in a very large machine that will be Jared Leto’s upcoming vampire movie. And sometimes it’s easier to just stay in your lane and focus on performance.
The inclusion of Michael Keaton in Morbius will mark the first time a MCU character has appeared in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters. It’ll be interesting to see more of these crossovers occur, hopefully including the likes of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man eventually. Tom Hardy is certainly invested in bringing Peter Parker into the Venom franchise.
Of course, Vulture isn't necessarily the comic book character that Michael Keaton is synonymous with. That honor goes to DC’s Batman, with Keaton famously playing the Dark Knight in both of Tim Burton’s movies. Fans are thrilled that he's returning to the cape and cowl in the upcoming Flash movie, seemingly opening up DC’s multiverse in the process. We’ll just have to wait and see if Keaton was similarly confused by that highly anticipated project.
Morbius is currently set to arrive in theaters on January 28th, 2022. Meanwhile, The Flash is expected on November 4th, 2022. In the meantime, check out the 2021 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
