Jared Leto’s Morbius movie has released its first teaser trailer, and while it includes a cameo of Spider-Man, it weirdly features Tobey Maguire’s incarnation rather than Tom Holland’s version. Sony Pictures is expanding its own Marvel universe with the arrival of Morbius the Living Vampire as the second installment in their cinematic franchise. Despite starting out to be separated from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the teaser trailer is seemingly confirming its existence within Disney’s Marvel world.
With Michael Keaton’s Vulture appearing at the end of the Morbius trailer, the natural choice for the web-slinger would be Holland’s current version. However, the reference to the friendly neighborhood hero is instead related to a previous actor having played the role. In one shot when Leto’s Michael Morbius is wandering around in a prison jumpsuit, a piece of Spider-Man graffiti can be seen on a wall with the word “murderer” painted over it. The image is a shot of Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man costume, but not from Maguire’s movies.
This particular costume is actually a flipped image from the Spider-Man PS4 game as the Sam Raimi-suit became a DLC in 2018. While there is definitely a web-slinger in this universe, viewers may be unclear at first which Spider-Man that audience members are expected to see down the line. With Keaton’s Vulture in the trailer, and the fact that the “murderer” graffiti refers to events that happened in Spider-Man: Far From Home, this trailer confirms that Holland’s Spider-Man exists in this universe. So despite the costume being Maguire’s, it’s safe to say that his version of the iconic Marvel hero isn’t coming back to take part in Sony’s Marvel universe.
What has most likely happened is that the decision to include Spider-Man into this franchise was a last-minute one, seeing as the new Sony-Marvel Spider-Man deal allows for such a crossover. And so, someone simply made a mistake in choosing this image to use instead of one of Holland’s Spider-Man. That’s not to say that it won’t be changed (or fixed) by the time the film comes out.
Aside from the specific costume being used, the “murderer” tag references Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) framing Spider-Man for his death, and now society looks at the hero as a true criminal. It might suggest that Morbius is taking place after Spider-Man: Far From Home, but before the events of Spider-Man 3 that’s in the works. The choice of having the graffiti take the shot of Maguire’s suit from the video game could have also been a way to pay homage to the studio’s first Spider-Man franchise.
Holland is currently rumored to have a cameo appearance in Venom 2, which strengthens the idea of the MCU’s Spider-Man truly being the one that exists within Sony’s Marvel Universe. While the actor isn’t slated to appear in Morbius, if the Venom 2 rumors turn out to be true, it’s plausible that he could make a surprise appearance. Eager viewers will have to catch Morbius when it hits theaters to find out what role Spider-Man may or may not have in the second film from Sony’s Marvel Universe.
