The first trailer for Morbius , starring Jared Leto as Michael Morbius, debuted this week. But for the time being, neither Tom Holland nor his Spider-Man character will make an appearance in Morbius or Venom, with Sony only featuring the superhero in animated form, releasing the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse in 2018 (and with a few sequels and spin-offs on the cards ).

The massive Marvel and Sony negotiations that nearly ended it all for Spider-Man in the MCU are stable at the moment, allowing Tom Holland's Peter Parker to stay in his Marvel home for a few more movies. The only Marvel Cinematic Universe film release before then is Black Widow , a prequel that isn't likely to touch on the MCU's larger story, or Spider-Man.

Morbius appears as a primary character and a boss in the Wii , PS2 and PSP versions of the Spider-Man 3 game, voiced by Sean Donnellan. So, instead, he took his business to Sony to bring a very different comic book character to life. We knew the Spider-Man villain would get his own movie in 2020 and Jared Leto had been cast in the title role.

Yet, most filmmakers have shied away from the horror-themed approach, even though the likes of The Crow and the original Blade trilogy paved the way for this subgenre of comic book movies over two decades ago. Over the years, Morbius fought against and alongside Spider-Man at various points in Marvel's comics, often while struggling to control his vampiric hunger.

Like any long-running comic book character, Morbius has taken many forms over the years. At the end of that movie, J. Jonah Jameson accuses Spider-Man of murder, and, for those of us who Easter eggs are old, it was awesome to see J.K. Simmons playing J. Jonah Jameson again, a role he hadn't taken on since the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies.

And in a film that could feature Dracula , Michael Morbius would definitely feel at home. In the trailer we see a doctor, Michael Morbius (Leto) attempt to come to terms with a rare blood condition - going so far as to experiment with bat DNA in an attempt to cure himself, which turns him into his vampire-like super-villain form.