So, this past week was a goldmine for news. Hawkeye was reportedly getting delayed, Scott Derrickson departed the Doctor Strange sequel. Not the least of which were rumors saying the upcoming Sony film Morbius would tie into the MCU. It was hard to believe until actual screenshots of a trailer surfaced online. Images of Jared Leto walking past a Spider-Man poster (a picture of the Raimi costume ripped from the PS4 game no less) with the words ‘murderer’ spraypainted on it. And then we got the actual trailer just today that saved one big cameo for last. See it for yourself.
Out of all the MCU acknowledgments I was predicted them to do, a full-blown appearance by Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes was last. So what the hell gives?
The writing has been on the wall for some time. With Sony’s grand plan to create their own series of Spider-verse films, it was inevitable for them to dip their hands into Feige’s sandbox. Peter Parker, after all, is merely being leased by Sony to Disney. When talks of the Disney-Sony broke down and set the internet ablaze, it was up to the two parties to mend walls and a compromise was settled. From the mouth of Kevin Feige himself:
Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold.
Given the lengths Feige was willing to go to ignore the vision of a shared MCU from Jeph Loeb, I assumed that the same would be said for Sony’s Spider-verse. Tom Holland would show up in their film, have his day with Venom, and go home to the MCU where none of it will ever be mentioned or acknowledged. It’ll be treated the same way the MCU treated Daredevil and the Defenders. Avengers: Endgame will be a thing that happened in Sony’s world but Peter’s encounter with Eddie Brock won’t be in the MCU.
But perhaps that might not be the case with Keaton’s appearance in this movie. As you can see, Toomes and Morbius come to face to face at some point in the movie. Toomes is in the same prison garb he wore in Spider-Man: Homecoming while Morbius is clearly wearing a hoodie that wouldn’t be allowed in prison. Jared Leto was also pictured filming a scene in prison. Put two and two together, one can assume that the two meet in jail and maybe escape. If Toomes ends up escaping prison along with Mac Gargan, then it’ll be hard for the MCU to just flat out ignore a major plot point they themselves set up.
But for all we know, this could just be Sony being Sony. That poster of the painfully obvious Raimi costume certainly doesn’t help their case. If they couldn’t secure an actual image of the MCU Spidey costume, it’s hard to imagine them getting any say in how the MCU shifts.
Bottom line, this is a very confusing ordeal that I’m sure Sony is loving given how all eyes are on them. I didn’t find the trailer to be particularly exciting but at the least, I am extremely curious whether this film moves the needle for the MCU. It’ll be huge if it does.
