It’s no secret superhero movies are dominating the box office as of late. Spider-Man: No Way Home recently became the first movie to make over $1 billion since the pandemic started, surely offsetting some losses for the movie theater business. The comic book genre seems to always bring audiences out of their homes and into seats, and Morbius star Jared Leto is getting blunt about the topic as he stars in his third film of this kind.
Jared Leto memorably played The Joker in 2016’s Suicide Squad and 2021's Zack Snyder's Justice League, and up next he’ll play Morbius the Living Vampire in the upcoming entry for Sony's Spider-Man Universe. The actor recently admitted his personal taste for film would label him as a “bit of a snob” to Variety, but he sees an importance to superhero films. In his words:
If it wasn't for Marvel films, I don't even know if theaters would exist. It doesn't seem like there's room for everyone, and that starts to become a little heartbreaking.
Jared Leto speaks to an issue that was brought on by the streaming boom, but sped up by the pandemic when theaters were forced to close. Since then, more films than ever have been sent to the various streaming platforms rather than given exclusive theatrical releases. For example, his early 2021 thriller The Little Things was moved straight to HBO Max.
For Morbius, Jared Leto was excited to explore a Marvel character who has yet to receive a film adaptation. He called the movie a “bit of a dark horse” when it comes to comic book movies. Morbius tells the story of biochemist Dr. Michael Morbius, who is stricken with a rare blood disease. During an attempt to cure this disease, he becomes afflicted him with a unique brand of vampirism. You can check out the latest trailer for Morbius here:
Morbius is certainly not your typical Spider-Man spinoff considering the character’s horror roots and the movie having more of an anti-hero storyline like Venom. We don’t expect a Spider-Man showdown, but Jared Leto has recently shared that he “would love to get in the ring” with the masked hero as Morbius. Since there have been so many comic book films, there’s a need for Hollywood to go for more off-center concepts, as Morbius looks like it’ll be.
Of course it’ll be tough for Jared Leto to overshadow his Joker, which he has said “never say never” to in regards to perhaps coming back if the phone rang. The actor is able to move between more mainstream projects to other types of things like his new AppleTV+ series, WeCrashed, now available to start. You can check out Morbius in theaters on April 1 and look over what other upcoming superhero movies may dominate the box office next.
