POPSUGAR UK

"Morbius"'s Midcredits Scenes Give It a Complicated Link to the MCU

01/04/2022 - 02:00 PM

MORBIUS, Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, 2022.  Sony Pictures Releasing /  Marvel Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

For most of "Morbius" [1] — the new superhero movie from Sony about the "living vampire" Dr. Michael Morbius [2] (Jared Leto [3]) — there are no references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe or even Spider-Man [4]. But that finally changes during the movie's two midcredits scenes.

In the first, a wide shot of New York City reveals a hazy and mysterious opening in the sky, much like the one seen in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" [5] when the different multiverses opened up [6] and all converged on that version of Peter Parker. Then, we see the inside of a Manhattan prison where Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) [7] appears in an empty cell. Toomes was the villain in "Spider-man: Homecoming" and turned into the villain the Vulture.

MORBIUS, Michael Keaton, 2022.  Sony Pictures Releasing /  Marvel Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

It seems that when Dr. Strange messed with the multiverse in "No Way Home," he sent Toomes from the MCU into the universe Morbius (and Venom [8]) find themselves in. A news report tells viewers that Toomes is immediately released from jail because, in this world, he's committed no crimes.

A second credit scene sheds light on just what Toomes gets up to in this new universe. Morbius drives out to the desert to meet Toomes, who's somehow found or made a new pair of wings and helmet. Toomes says he doesn't know how he ended up there, but he assumes it has something to do with Spider-Man. Morbius doesn't have any reaction to the name Spider-Man, so it's unclear if he's familiar with the web slinger or not. But Morbius does agree that they should try to work together.

Whether the scenes are intended to lead into a "Morbius" sequel or a bigger team-up movie is unclear. At the end of the movie, we find out that Morbius's fellow doctor (and love interest) Martine Bancroft turned into a living vampire as well, which sets her up either as an ally or an enemy for Morbius next time. But as Sony continues to make movies about Spider-Man villains — including the upcoming "Venom 3" and Madame Web movie [9] — it's possible they have their eyes on a bigger villain team-up film down the line.

And in case you're wondering why Tom Holland [10]'s Spider-Man doesn't drop down from a building and take care of Morbius way earlier in the film, it's a little complicated. Marvel originally sold the movie rights to the Spider-Man character and his various nemeses to Sony, which is how we got the Tobey Maguire [11] and Andrew Garfield [12] outings as Peter Parker. But when the latter set of movies didn't do as well as the studio wanted, and Marvel's own in-house movies (the ones starring all the Avengers) became the most popular films in the world, Sony and Marvel came to an agreement to have Spider-Man come into the MCU. Sony kept the rights to all the "Spider-Man" villains, which is why they've made movies about Venom and Morbius. To explain the separation, they've decided to make the Sony movies their own universe — but whether Garfield or Maguire's Spider-Man [13] would be Spidey in this universe is unclear.


Source URL
https://www.popsugar.co.uk/entertainment/morbius-end-credit-scene-mcu-explained-48774669