Morbius Trailer Breakdown: Jared Leto's Conflicted Marvel Antihero Arrives

More than two years (!) after the first trailer for the movie arrived, Sony Pictures has released what is being billed as the final trailer for "Morbius," the studio's latest Marvel Comics adaptation. This is cut from a similar cloth as "Venom," with Sony utilizing the characters connected to Spider-Man that it has at its disposal to create solo franchises that can exist (mostly) divorced from the main Marvel Cinematic Universe. Soon enough, we'll see if Jared Leto's Living Vampire can have the same amount of gas in the tank with the moviegoing masses as Tom Hardy's Lethal Protector.

With this final trailer, Sony is throwing it all at the wall with a two-minute, action-packed, vampire-filled bit of footage. To try and make some sense of it all, we're going to break down the footage in detail and see what we can learn about what this movie is going to be, and where it exists within the larger Marvel multiverse. Let's dig in, shall we?

Here we start with a longer version of a sequence from the original trailer. Seemingly, a transformed Michael Morbius smuggles himself onto a ship after his bat incident and proceeds to take out an entire group of men with machine guns. 

Even for an antihero, it appears Leto's character is going to be doing a whole bunch of murders.

At the end of the sequence, we get a sustained look at Leto in his full-blown vampire form after feeding on those helpless soldier boys. Much can be said of what this movie appears to be overall but they did go pretty hard on the character design.

This is another restructured version of a scene we've seen in the previous trailers, which sees a sick Dr. Michael Morbius attempting to find a cure for his mysterious disease using bats, apparently. 

The specifics of it remain a bit hazy but this is the inciting incident for this Marvel character and the thing that sets him on the path of becoming a blood-drinking vampire.

We get a brief interruption from the cave shenanigans to see the good doctor in his normal environment, attempting to help sick people despite his own illness. This poor girl is laid up in a hospital bed and is not looking all that well. The voiceover from Leto indicates that he truly just wanted to help people — and that seemingly extended to helping himself.

Sony had to slip this shot into this trailer as well, which has been the key shot of Morbius in his full vampire from floating around for the past couple of years or so. We get a whole lot more full-tilt vampire in this trailer so the shot doesn't have quite as much impact but it's still a shot they are leaning on pretty hard.

We quickly get a shot of the Horizon building, which may contain some major connectivity to the larger Marvel universe. Michael Morbius works for the company in the comics and actually is the one who creates the Anti-Spider virus serum. Horizon is also headed up by Max Modell, whom Peter Parker idolizes. We know that a version of Spider-Man exists in this universe, we just don't know which one yet. 

Now we get a glimpse of Michael testing out some of his powers, which includes the "bat radar" (as he called it in a previous trailer). 

Bats use echolocation and it appears this superpower is, more or less, a heightened version of that. Hence, the wavy bus.

With being a vampire comes certain problems one must contend with. Specifically, Michael now has a thirst for blood and this is something he is struggling with. To hunt people and consume blood or whither away and die? That likely explains why we're seeing him in a room full of blood bags, presumably an attempt to avoid any more murder.

This trailer packs in a lot more super power stuff and this little sequence is a prefect example. We get see Leto in full vampire mode, streaking across the skyline in the night before leaping off of this building. 

This looks a little more heroic than much of the other vampire stuff we see. This is a superhero movie, after all.

Now wet get a bit of Al Madrigal as Agent Rodriguez, staring down a hallway in what looks to be a train station, with bodies decorating the floor. Did Morbius do this? More bodies stacking up for him to explain? Or is someone (or something!) else at play here?

Revisiting Michael's dilemma from earlier, we now get a glimpse of what will happen if he doesn't consume human blood. Leto is seen looking absolutely drained of life in this hospital bed, seemingly attempting to fight his newfound urges.

Jarred Harris is playing Emil Nikols in the film and we finally get a look at him in this brief sequence. He is chilling on a park bench with Michael and it appears he is a bit of a shady ally. He is offering some vague advice about controlling the monster that now lives within him. Whether or not he gives any actionable advice remains to be seen.

This is yet another money shot of Leto in full, raging vampire mode, descending the void between some stairs, claws and teeth out, ready to rock. It's really just a way of demonstrating what his powers look like in action while showcasing what director Daniel Espinosa's action is going to look like.

This is where things get strange. Michael Keaton returns as Adrian Toomes, who we saw in "Spider-Man: Homecoming." Yet, that movie firmly exists in the MCU. So, is this another version of him within the multiverse? That remains very much up in the air and leads to some of the confusion regarding where this movie exists in the overall multiverse. 

Also worth pointing out that we see more of the character in this particular trailer, signaling that he may be in the movie a little bit more than previously expected. It's also interesting that he seems familiar with Dr. Michael Morbius. What is the nature of their relationship, exactly? More questions than answers for now. 

Again, this is another demonstration of Morbius' powers that we've seen in previous trailers. He can seemingly fly, or at least float, and he's doing so in front of this train in the subway. How useful is this facet of his power set outside of subway stations? We shall see. 

This shot gives us a tiny sense of the relationship between Leto's lead character and Adria Arjorna's Martine Bancroft. We haven't seen a ton of her in the trailers but it's clear they care about one another and this shot offers a taste of their romance. One can only imagine the whole vampire situation is going to complicate matters for their love life. 

This little sequence, though difficult to make out in still frame form, appears to see Michael using his vampire powers to break out of jail. It does appear that he is taken into custody by the authorities at some point. But can a jail really hold the Living Vampire? Of course not! 

This is a pretty interesting shot as we see Morbius fighting someone, or something, that is not just a guy with a gun. It seems like this might be our anti-hero duking it out with Matt Smith's Loxias Crown, who we're going to see more of in human form shortly. 

This is a very intriguing shot which sees two young kids laid up in hospital beds. The framing of the trailer makes it very much seem like this is a flashback and I suspect this is Michael and Loxias in the same children's hospital together as youngsters. That explains their bond and what might put them on the path to fighting one another later on in the movie 

In this same flashback, it appears as though the young Loxias is getting beat up by some of his fellow youngsters, and Michael isn't there to help him. Some resentment to play off of later, perhaps?

Now we catch up with Loxias all grown up, with Matt Smith looking more than a little irritated in this shot. This also looks like it might be the same subway station where those bodies were strewn about before. Perhaps it was Loxias responsible for those dead guys and not Morbius? He's also giving a pretty bitter speech about living with death and wanting revenge here, so yeah, pretty standard comic book villain stuff.

Finally, Tyrese Gibson's Simon Stroud shows up. He will be one of the primary cops partnering up with Agent Rodriguez. We don't see nearly as much of Stroud in this trailer but he's here investigating something or other with a whole bunch of other officers in the woods. 

After a few very quick cut action shots, we get to another money short of sorts with Leto surrounded by bats before revealing, once again, his full vampire form. 

This comes as the line "accept who you are" is delivered by Loxias, which seems to imply that much of this is going to be about Leto embracing the beast, rather than trying to conquer it. 

As the trailer nears its conclusion, we get a shot of Morbius and an unidentified foe tumbling out of this building during a brawl. Again, the assumption is that this is Loxias, who is very much the main villain of this piece. 

Again, because this movie is so dark a lot of this stuff doesn't look as great in still form, but this is kind of the big conclusion shot of the trailer before the title card, which sees Morbius flying towards the sky surrounded by bats. It is very much the kind of shot you would expect to see in a movie in which Jared Leto is playing a superheroic vampire. 

After the title card we get to the trailer's only real moment of levity, which sees Agent Rodriguez bringing a bit of holy water into the interrogation room with Michael. When Stroud questions this, he brings up "The Lost Boys," to which, Michael replies with "story of my life." 

Naturally, the whole thing concludes with another bit of action (again something we've seen in the other trailers) with Morbius tearing through another group of armed men with ease. And that's about it! Lots more action. Still not too much regarding the overall story. Still no big villain reveal, and this is our final trailer. It's interesting the amount that Sony appears to be holding back. We'll see how it all shakes out soon enough. 

"Morbius" hits theaters on April 1, 2022.