While Marvel Studios was busy weaving Spider-Man into its MCU, Sony Pictures Entertainment took its time laying the foundation for a Spider-Man universe that one day (and maybe one day soon) could host the wall-crawler, giving him a wide array of villains and characters with which to interact. The two Venom movies, alone, have introduced Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and the symbiote, Carnage (Woody Harrelson), Shriek (Naiome Harris) and more. Now we have the second trailer for Morbius arriving, where Jared Leto is going to play a doctor infected with a rare disease that turns him into a living vampire. And in the trailer lies teases for the existence of two OTHER major villains that could show up, eventually.
The Daily Bugle has been a fun staple in the Venom movies so far, with a mention of astronaut John Jameson, too -- the son of Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson (played by JK Simmons). We saw a character reading the newspaper in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and now, in a quick tease for Morbius, we see mention of two important villains in the Spider-Man world: The Rhino and Black Cat. They are part of this world, but to what extent?
It’s unlikely that these characters will appear in Morbius when it arrives in theaters in January. Instead, the references are like seeds, planted by Sony with the potential for growth and involvement in an upcoming movie. And when you consider the character names, it makes sense on a certain level. Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat, is a popular villain and love interest for Spidey who has been talked about as a movie character for years. Felicity Jones actually played Felicia in Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but never got to be the Cat. Sony could lure Jones back into the fold, or recast the part for this Sony SpiderVerse.
As for Rhino, he’s another character we only saw on screen on Webb’s Amazing sequel, but there have been consistent rumors that he’d be a part of the Multiverse craziness when Spider-Man: No Way Home arrived in theaters in December. Even if that doesn’t end up being true, this mention of the character hints at his potential involvement in a Sony Spider-Man movie down the line. The possibilities are endless.
Sony has access to more than 900 Marvel comics characters that have connections to Spider-Man’s universe and are not named Spider-Man. This is why they have been developing the Venom movies, a Morbius movie, a Kraven the Hunter movie, and other projects in the pipeline such as a possible Madame Webb or Spider-Woman feature. This is on top of some of the planned Sony TV shows based around Spidey-related villains, including Silk. So Sony is just ramping up on the Spider-Man stories it wants to and can tell, and hints like these in the Morbius trailer suggest possible directions.
The full Morbius trailer will be online tomorrow, Tuesday, November 2. The movie opens in theaters on January 28, 2022.
