How No Way Home Forced Morbius to Change Michael Keaton Vulture Scenes

Warning: This article contains Morbius spoilers

Morbius director Daniel Espinosa explains how the movie was impacted by Spider-Man: No Way Home. Released last year on December 17, Sony and Marvel’s third solo-film for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man turned out to be one of the biggest box-office sensations in recent memory, coupled with a very strong critical response as well. No Way Home‘s success can largely be attributed to it utilizing the multiverse to bring various villains and past Spider-Men into the MCU, even Tom Hardy’s Venom temporarily, before being sent back to their respective universes by the end.

The latest entry in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, Morbius, saw its theatrical debut this past weekend on April 1, bringing in a decent $39 million at the box office despite devastating reviews. The Marvel movie stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a scientist who incidentally afflicts himself with a form of transgenic vampirism while curing his rare blood disorder. Before the delays, Morbius was once scheduled to come out before No Way Home. In fact, Sony recently delayed the Living Vampire’s spinoff to give the Spider-Man movie more time to breathe at the box office – and maybe to make some changes to Morbius as well.

In a new interview with Uproxx, Espinosa opens up about how the movie was reworked to mesh better with No Way Home. One of the biggest examples was the sky-cracking visual effect first used by No Way Home and seen again during Morbius‘ post-credits scene to signify Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes/Vulture switching universes. Because No Way Home set this visual standard for how the multiverse works, Morbius had to follow suit. Read what Espinosa shared below:

It was more that when Spider-Man came out, they said, “We know how this works and we have a visual concept of how to make this.” But the idea of having different timelines was something that was, for me, introduced within the movie universe with Into the Spider-Verse. When we were talking about making the movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse had just come out and it was a huge success. I told the guys, I said, “This is super common among comic book readers.”

The first thing that happened was that we had Michael Keaton because we were planning on doing this. But then when Spider-Man: No Way Home came out, it said, “This is how the visual effects are.” And then the idea of having him just encountering him in that universe seemed too complicated, and then we put it in the end.

There has been massive confusion about Morbius‘ connection to the MCU ever since a trailer revealed the inclusion of Keaton’s Vulture, who appeared to meet Morbius while in prison. That scene ended up being cut from Morbius, and instead, Vulture only shows up during the post-credits scenes. Because of No Way Home, Morbius merely running into Vulture would have been too complicated, as Espinosa explains, so those scenes had to cut, reworked, and tacked on as a post-credits tease. Morbius also cut some Spider-Man references from the trailer, such as the “murderer” graffiti and the Oscorp building.

Though audiences have many gripes with Morbius, its post-credits scene is chief among them. It’s not only confusing in terms of how the multiverse functions, but it also doesn’t make much sense narratively. Much like Hardy’s Eddie Brock, Morbius is depicted more as an anti-hero, so it’s unclear why he would want to team up with Vulture and fight Spider-Man, as Keaton’s character suggests. Perhaps, Morbius will make more sense after more entries in Sony’s Spider-Man universe.

Source: Uproxx

About The Author

Adam Bentz
(1116 Articles Published)

Adam Bentz is a movie and TV news writer for Screen Rant. From a young age, Adam has been interested in a wide range of movies and television, but it was talented auteurs like Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Aaron Sorkin who ultimately sparked his interest in the craft. Motivated by his love for the screen, Adam studied creative writing with a concentration in screenwriting at Southern New Hampshire University.

After graduating, Adam interned as a writer with The Borgen Project, a nonprofit organization working to end extreme poverty. Other than writing for Screen Rant, Adam reviews films on his website adambentz.wordpress.com

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