Oscar-winning Actor Jared Leto to play ‘Spider-Man’ Villain Morbius

The Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto has been tapped by Sony to star in the Spider-Man spin-off Morbius the Living Vampire. Scandinavian filmmaker Daniel Espiñosa will helm the upcoming movie. Espiñosa is also known for his sci-fi thriller Life.

The project is being written by the team of Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, whose feature credits include Power Rangers, God of Egypt, Dracula Untold, and The Last Witch Hunter. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach and Lucas Foster will be producing Morbius.

The pale-faced monster is based on the Marvel Comic character Morbius: The Living Vampire. Dr. Michael Morbius is a gifted scientist who attempted to cure his rare blood disease. Instead of getting cured, the experiment failed as he developed a condition that was a form of vampirism—fangs, pale skin, a thirst for blood, and superhuman strength.

Morbius was introduced by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane in 1971’s Amazing Spider-Man comic. Since then, Morbius was treated more like an antihero. Over time, however, he became a slightly heroic figure in his own right and even headlined his own comic book titles.

Aside from playing various diverse roles, Leto is known for the popular DC villain The Joker in the movie Suicide Squad. The actor also played NIander Wallace, a sinister character in Blade Runner 2049, as well as his outstanding performance as Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club that garnered him an Oscar.

Morbius is one of the numerous superhero projects in various stages of development at Sony right now, apart from this year’s Venom, starring Tom Hardy, and a Black Cat and Silver Sable film. To add to that Leto isn’t done playing The Joker for Warner Bros. yet, so it is unclear when it will fall in the release schedule.  

Currently, there is no word yet when we could expect to see Morbius hit the screen.