Will 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' Address the Awful Post-Credits Scene in 'Morbius'?
The first trailer for the Marvel Cinematic Universe's next Spider-Man movie premiered today, and Tom Holland's web-slinger looks like he's having a rough go of it. Since the last Spidey film ended with everybody forgetting about Peter Parker, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has the hero pining for the friends who no longer remember him. Here's a question: though: Will Spider-Man: Brand New Day remember Morbius?
Morbius, for those who do not remember, was a Jared Leto-led movie about a Spider-Man side character whose whole deal was being a sort of vampire-like antihero. As is the case with the other films in the misguided Sony's Spider-Man Universe, Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter, and Venom, Morbius didn't feature Spider-Man as a character, instead trying to make B- and C-list Spidey characters a box office appeal on their own.
This failed more often than not (with the exception of Venom, the films were bombs). You can't say that Sony didn't try, though. Trailers for Morbius even tried to trick audiences into thinking that Spider-Man—the hero they really wanted to see—might actually be in this one. Most intriguing was a shot of Michael Keaton reprising his role as the Vulture, the villain from Spider-Man: Homecoming.
The few people that saw Morbius know that Vulture's return was a trollish misdirect. Mobius takes place in a different continuity than the MCU, where Vulture was last seen behind bars. However, Doctor Strange's spell from Spider-Man: No Way Home brought plenty of Spider-Men and Spider-Man villains from non-MCU movies into the MCU's reality. Morbius's post-credit scene revealed that, inexplicably, this spell also pulled Vulture from the MCU and plopped him into whatever universe Morbius is set in. (This was not how Doctor Strange's Spell worked at all.)
The stinger ends with a costumed Vulture meeting up with Morbius and saying that he wants to team-up to fight Spider-Man—nevermind that it's unclear if Spider-Man exists in this reality, if there's a reason for Morbius not to like Spidey, or why Vulture has a renewed vendetta against Spider-Man.
It was a very dumb, frustrating scene that didn't make any sense and clearly only served as a way for Sony's Spider-Man Universe to piggyback on the success of Spidey in the MCU. (Sony famously owns the film rights to Spider-Man; the character's appearances in the Disney-owned MCU are part of a deal between the two studios.)
Michael Keaton's Vulture Getting Disappeared Leaves a Hole in Scorpion's Motivation
So, what does Morbius's awful post-credits scene mean for Brand New Day? The just-released trailer confirms that Mac Gargan, a minor villain from Homecoming played by Michael Mando, will return and adopt his supervillain persona of Scorpion, complete with a gnarly suit with a stinger and all. This character was last previously seen in jail in Homecoming's post-credits scene, having been sent there by Spider-Man earlier in the movie. In the stinger, he threatens Keaton's Vulture, trying to get him to reveal Spider-Man's secret identity so he can get revenge. Vulture refuses, which was good of him.
The Morbius post-credit scene reveals that Scorpion's prisonmate inexplicably got sucked out of existence. That seems like something that, you know, might come up as Scorpion tries to get revenge on Spidey in the upcoming Brand New Day. Presumably, Vulture wouldn't have been able to tell Scorpion Spider-Man's real name because Doctor Strange made everybody forget about Peter Parker in any case, but the Homecoming post-credits scene painted the villain as somebody with a personal vendetta. He wanted to find out who Spider-Man was, and he was willing to threaten Vulture to get the information he needed. Now, thanks to Morbius, that entire character dynamic is gone.
Will Spider-Man: Brand New Day explore the ramifications of Vulture's sudden disappearance and how it changes Scorpion's motivations? Or, more likely, will the movie do what pretty much everybody in the real world does and simply pretend that Morbius doesn't exist? We'll have to wait and see.