Every once in a while in the comic book world, you’ll find that the perfect actor gets cast in the perfect role in some sort of adaptation, and everything works out wonderfully. You know what we mean: The kind of genre-defining and iconic take on a beloved character that you see in Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, or Chris Evans’ Captain America.
Well, this news about an upcoming Morbius film that Sony has planned isn’t exactly that.
Yes, that headline is right, as, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Jared fucking Leto is being cast as the Living Vampire in a Spider-Man spinoff helmed by Daniel Espinosa (who directed last year’s totally underwhelming Life to very little fanfare). On the one hand, we kind of like the direction that Sony is taking their portion of the Spider-Man rights, with these odd-looking horror films like Venom, and if this Morbius film leads us anywhere closer to getting another Blade movie, well, we’ll be pleased as punch. However, this casting isn’t giving us much confidence.
You see, in case you haven’t seen Suicide Squad recently or watched any of the direct-to-video schlock that Leto finds himself in every now and then like Netflix’s The Outsider, Jared Leto kind of sucks! Actually, strike the ‘kind of’. He really sucks!
On some level, this feels like the shittiest possible version of that joke that everyone makes about Keanu Reeves — you know, that he’s ageless, given his physical similarity to an old painting, clear skin, and laconic vibes — but Leto’s agelessness feels like it’s got an evil behind it, like he’s been killing Christopher Lamberts for hundreds of thousands of years in order to possess dark-ass Highlander energies. Perhaps that’s why they thought he was such a good choice for Morbius, but boy oh boy he’s an (alleged) scumbag, too.
Anyways, that’s about the extent of information that we have on Morbius right now, so stay tuned for more. There’s the chance that this could fall through if nobody sees Venom, though, so keep an eye on that.
Featured image from ‘Chapter 27’ via Peace Arch Entertainment.