Jared Leto gets his second stab at starring in a comic book movie with the July release of Morbius, the latest installment of Sony’s Spider-Man-adjacent series that also features Venom and may ultimately include Tom Holland’s Peter Parker as well. It would be fair to say that Leto’s superhero track record isn’t the greatest, with his performance as the Joker in Suicide Squad proving divisive among fans, along with the constant rumors of truly bizarre on-set behavior.
The 48 year-old is reportedly done as the Clown Prince of Crime though, with the latest Birds of Prey trailer making it look as if Harley Quinn kills him off for good. This can’t have gone down too well with the Academy Award winner, either, who was already unhappy with DC and Warner Bros.’ decision to move forward on a Joker movie without consulting him, although a billion dollars at the box office and a serious awards season push have proven the studio’s decision to be justified.
We haven’t seen or heard much from Morbius since early last year, when a series of set photos made their way onto the internet along with a motion poster shared by Leto on social media. However, with the first trailer for the movie set to arrive next week, the marketing campaign is about to ramp up significantly over the coming months and now, a photo of the 30 Seconds to Mars frontman as the title character has been leaked online, which you can see below.
Based on this image alone, director Daniel Espinosa certainly seems to be keeping close to the character’s established comic book appearance. Venom came under criticism from some quarters for relying too heavily on subpar CGI, but it looks as though Morbius is going to be using a lot of good old-fashioned practical effects in order to bring the Living Vampire to the big screen.
The jury is still out until the trailer drops, of course, and we can get a good look at both Leto in action and the overall tone of the movie, but this first glimpse at Morbius remains hugely encouraging nonetheless.