Trailer: Jared Leto is Spider-Man villain Morbius the Living Vampire

For many, Morbius the Living Vampire is probably one of the more obscure Spider-Man villains in Marvel Comics history. Spider-Man fighting vampires isn't something you hear about that often. But for me, Morbius is among the most popular, because I was a young kid obsessively reading Marvel comics in the early '90s when the character got his own title as part of the Midnight Sons brand. The villain-turned-antihero vampire was fighting alongside the likes of Ghost Rider, Blade and his buddies the Nightstalkers, and Doctor Strange, and I was a fan.

Just like his fellow Spider-Man villain-turned-antihero VENOM, Morbius has now, surprisingly, gotten his own solo film, and a trailer has arrived online (it's embedded above) to give us a preview of what MORBIUS has in store for us.

Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #101 in 1971, Morbius is

Dr. Michael Morbius, a scientist who suffered from a rare blood disease and attempted to cure himself to disastrous results. Instead of being cured, he became afflicted with a condition that was a form of vampirism — the thirst for blood, along with fangs and super strength.

Jared Leto plays Morbius in the film, and he's joined in the cast by Jared Harris as his mentor, Tyrese Gibson as "an FBI agent trying to hunt down the living vampire", and Adria Arjona as Morbius' fiancee Martine Bancroft, who

could be said to be accidentally responsible for Morbius’ transformation into a vampire-like creature, as it’s the human Morbius’ love for fiancee Martine that drives him to experiment on himself.  

Also on board is Matt Smith as the film's villain, Loxias Crown. As ThatHashtagShow reported, 

Crown suffers from the same rare blood disease as his good friend Morbius. Like Morbius, Loxias will be transformed by the serum that Moribus developed to cure them and the film’s main conflict will center on Morbius trying to stop the killing machine Loxias has become while also fighting off his own blood lust.

Directed by Daniel Espinosa from a screenplay written by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, MORBIUS was produced by Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Lucas Foster. The film is set to reach theatres on July 31, 2020.

Easter eggs in the trailer indicate that this is set in the same universe as the recent MCU / Sony Spider-Man films, SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING and SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME.