Sony announced yesterday that the horror-superhero movie Morbius will postpone it’s January 28th release due to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases. Originally scheduled for a summer 2020 theatrical release, Morbius is now scheduled for April 2022.
Sony's Morbius, made in association with Marvel, stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a medical doctor inflicted with a strange illness that weakens his body and requires the use of crutches. Desperate for a cure, no matter how unconventional, Morbius accidentally infects himself with a new disease from bats. While his prior condition has miraculously healed, his newfound health comes with certain side effects like the ability to fly, super speed, sonar, a horde of bat sidekicks…and a thirst for human blood.
Now, Sony has scheduled Morbius to be released on April 1, 2022, the movie’s seventh announced release date. Michael Keaton is set to return as the Vulture, a villain previously seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Reshoots for Morbius apparently included adding more Vulture scenes to the film. It is speculated, based on the post-credits scenes of Venom 2 and the little we have seen of the character in the Morbius trailer, that Marvel, Sony and Disney have some plan afoot to unite Sony's Spider-Man multiverse with Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe.
While moving a film about being infected by a bat virus off the summer 2020 theatrical slate makes sense for multiple reasons, public safety only being one of them, the decision to not release Morbius in 2021 comes down to competition and bad timing. After theaters were still closed in summer 2020, the film was scheduled for release in mid-March 2021, almost a year to the date when many American cities initiated their first lockdowns. But in January 2021, after the American vaccine rollout began, it was moved again to October 8. Then, facing competition at the box office from No Time to Die, the postponed James Bond film that also featured a deadly virus plotline, Morbius was again moved, this time to January 2022. Now, with only four weeks left and the omicron variant raging, the film is rescheduled again for April Fool’s Day, 2022. Was this date chosen so if it has to be pushed again, Sony can play it off as a prank? Only time will tell.
Obviously Morbius is meant to draw on classic vampire horror stories, and many fans are excited to see Marvel incorporate horror elements into a superhero film, but hopefully do it better than the Fantastic Four body horror mess. But the accumulation of postponed release dates combined with rumors of re-shoots as recently as last month do not indicate Sony or Marvel have confidence in their production. If the viral pandemic continues into the spring, do not be surprised to suddenly see Morbius dropped on a streaming platform with little fanfare.
Morbius is scheduled to be released in theaters on April 1, 2022.
Source: Sony Pictures
