Besides giving us a new teaser at CCXP Worlds 2021, Sony also released a new poster for Morbius. Starring Jared Leto as the titular half-vampire antihero, Morbius is the next chapter in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, a cinematic universe connected to Tom Hardy’s Venom movies and possibly the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Morbius tells the story of Doctor Michael Morbius, a man with a rare and deadly blood disease who’s ready to do anything he can to find a cure. Unfortunately, during his search for a miraculous medicine, Morbius ends up turning himself into a blood-thirsty half-vampire that preys on humans to survive. However, Morbius’ curse comes with a few perks, such as enhanced strength, speed, reflexes, and even teleportation abilities. In the comic books, Morbius uses his new powers to fight crime viciously, and it’s expected the movie adaptation to follow the same path. Besides introducing a new anti-hero, Morbius is also the next piece in Sony’s plan to connect their superhero movies with the MCU. So far, Sony and Disney left their superhero movies in separate universes, but as the MCU jumpstarts the Multiverse, anything became possible.

In less than two weeks, Spider-Man: No Way Home will feature Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, Jamie Foxx’s Electro, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, and, as recently revealed, Thomas Haden Church's Sandman and Rhys Ifans' Lizard. All these villains come from Sony’s previous iterations of the Web Crawler, exactly one bad guy for each pre-MCU film — three starring Tobey Maguire as the titular hero, and the other two led by Andrew Garfield. Also, since Venom: Let There Be Carnage shattered the barrier between Sony’s movies and the MCU, it’s fair to say that Morbius might be the first movie to show the aftermath of No Way Home.

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Image via Sony

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Morbius’ latest trailer references multiple iterations of Spider-Man in theaters, with nods to the events lived both by Tom Holland in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man short-lived franchise. Additionally, the trailer has a clever easter-egg with Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man costume and mentions Hardy’s Venom by name, leading fans to wonder what exactly is happening behind the cameras.

As new marketing material gets released by Sony, it becomes clearer that Morbius is more than a standalone movie, as every poster, trailer, and teaser tries to connect to other Sony productions. Consider that Tom Hardy’s Venom is reportedly making a cameo in Morbius, and Michael Keaton might be reprising his role as the MCU’s Vulture, and it seems like Sony and Disney superhero movies will become part of the same continuity.

Directed by Daniel Espinosa from a script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, Morbius will hit theaters on January 28, 2022. Check out the new poster below.

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