Peter Parker might have gotten the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse all settled by the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, but it doesn’t seem Sony has managed to do the same. The end of the new Spidey movie has left the upcoming Morbius film with an extremely confusing — if not outright impossible — plothole to fill.
Let’s take a look at the facts, shall we?
October 5, 2018 — Venom debuts, and with it Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (then awkwardly called Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters). There is no indication that the movie takes place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
June 26, 2019 — Spider-Man: Far From Home premieres. J. Jonah Jameson reveals the hero’s true identity and accuses him of murdering Mysterio at the end of the film, and Peter Parker is branded a criminal.
January 13, 2020 — The first teaser trailer for Sony’s Morbius arrives. Michael Morbius is shown running down an alley which has a large picture of Spider-Man on it, with “MURDERER” graffitied over it, indicating that Morbius takes place in the MCU. (Confusingly and hilariously, the picture is of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man suit as used in Sony’s 2018 video game.)
October 1, 2021 — The post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage features Eddie Brock/Venom getting transported into the MCU where J. Jonah Jameson is reporting on the menace of Spider-Man. Venom calls Peter Parker “that guy,” as if the symbiote knows or feels connected to him.
November 2, 2021 — The first official trailer for Morbius arrives, in which an unknown character played by Michael Keaton — who starred in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming movie as the villain the Vulture — tells Morbius, “You and I should stay in touch!” This implies that Morbius takes place in the MCU, which makes sense as the two characters are both part of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery… except a police detective, while looking at a scene of carnage presumably caused by Morbius, says “We haven’t had anything this good since that thing in San Francisco,” presumably referring to the events of Venom and its sequel, which take place there. This makes sense if the MCU and Sony’s Spider-Man Universe have merged, as we know happens in No Way Home. Except…
December 17, 2021 — No Way Home premieres, and Spider-Man successfully repairs the multiverse. Eddie Brock/Venom is transported back to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe in one of the film’s post-credits scenes, leaving only a drop of the alien symbiote behind.
Do you see the issue here? Morbius seemingly takes place in both the MCU and Sony’s Spider-Verse at the same time, but that’s impossible after the events of No Way Home. Between Keaton and the Spider-Man alley art, it makes much more sense for Morbius to be set in the MCU and assume those cops are talking about something entirely different than Venom. But Morbius is very much a Sony movie, and touted as being part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which means Keaton is either a new character or playing the SSU’s incarnation of the Vulture as well. It also means that Spider-Man definitely exists somewhere in the SSU, and was also branded a murderer for some reason.
The third explanation is that someone working on Morbius fucked up, and might be photoshopping Spider-Man out of that alley as you read this. We’ll see when Morbius premieres on January 28, 2022.
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