A new Morbius teaser shines the spotlight on Matt Smith's character with surprisingly tragic results.Flashing back to Michael Morbius' childhood, the promo reveals that he and Smith's Milo are childhood friends who shared the same rare blood disease, hindering their mobility growing up. When asked what he'd do if he "could be normal," Morbius vows that he "would find a cure for us," a goal he seemingly achieves as an adult. However, despite Milo's initial excitement at Morbius' vampirism cure, Morbius laments it as a "curse" for its bloodthirsty side effects, setting both men on the path to becoming adversaries.
This revelation about Morbius and Milo follows up multiple trailers which relegated the Doctor Who star's presence to an enigmatic background player. Morbius' latest theatrical trailer also featured a more hostile confrontation between Morbius and his old friend, with Milo lamenting, "All our lives we've lived with death. Why shouldn't they know what it feels like?," urging Morbius to become a villain. Despite his name change, reports have teased Milo as being a variation of Marvel villain Loxias Crown (aka Hunger), a former Hydra agent whose encounter with the Living Vampire left him with similar supernatural abilities.
In addition to Smith, Morbius will feature another Marvel antagonist in Michael Keaton's Adrian Toomes/Vulture, this time playing a morally dubious ally to Morbius. It's unclear whether this Toomes is the same version as the character Keaton portrayed in Spider-Man: Homecoming since Morbius has repeatedly referenced events from Venom, which exists outside of the MCU timeline. That said, a photo Keaton recently posted -- titled "Little A Toomes work today" -- suggests he will make a few more Vulture appearances, in addition to upcoming DC roles as an older Bruce Wayne in The Flash and Batgirl.
First introduced in 1971's The Amazing Spider-Man #101, Morbius the Living Vampire evolved from a Spider-Man villain to an occasional ally struggling with his vampiric-like abilities. Apart from his film debut, Morbius has been adapted for both Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Ultimate Spider-Man, with the former introducing him as a recurring character before his transformation. Due to network censorship, Spider-Man: The Animated Series notoriously replaced Morbius' blood consumption with a need to drain plasma from his victims, though most of his other comic abilities were retained. On bringing the protagonist to life, visual effects supervisor Matthew E. Butler revealed that Morbius uses VFX software from Avengers: Endgame to translate Leto's facial expressions into vampire form.
Morbius arrives in theaters April 1.
Source: Twitter