Morbius director Daniel Espinosa is more than aware of the reception to his Marvel film, starring Jared Leto as the Living Vampire. He says the project turned out poorly due to Hollywood red tape, COVID-19, and too many cooks in the kitchen. The backlash to Morbius left Espinosa with a cloud of negative emotions as disappointment replaced excitement for the Spider-Man spinoff. “Yes. To make a movie through committee, I think, is very hard, and I felt in the end that maybe a different director would have been a better fit.”
Daniel Espinosa says his initial vision for Morbius differs from what fans experienced in theaters, and making the film was a battle of opinions.
“I’m known amongst the studios to be a person with a lot of opinions, and maybe they were not looking for that kind of director,” Espinosa told Deadline.
Daniel Espinosa’s comments about Morbius being made “through committee” harken back to Dakota Johnson’s thoughts on the epic failure of Sony‘s Madame Web, a movie I don’t know I’ll ever recover from. When Madame Web took the internet by storm with negative opinions swirling like a tornado of aggrieved Marvel fans, Johnson responded to the outcry by saying, “It’s so hard to get movies made, and in these big movies that get made – and it’s even starting to happen with the little ones, which is what’s really freaking me out – decisions are being made by committees, and art does not do well when it’s made by committee.”
“Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them,” Johnson continued. “But it was definitely an experience for me to make that movie. I had never done anything like it before. I probably will never do anything like it again because I don’t make sense in that world. And I know that now.”
Unfortunately for Sony, Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor Johnson as Sergei Kravinoff, looks pretty grim. A red-band, hyper-violent trailer debuted in June 2023, and we’ve not heard a peep from the film since. Kraven stalks into theaters on December 12, so there’s still time to crank up the PR machine, but yeah. There’s no conversation around the film, almost as if fans forgot it exists. Hopefully, Marvel will come out swinging when they ramp up promotions for Kraven, and I’ll be left eating my words. Sony’s extended Spider-Verse is brimming with potential. The studio needs to discover what works and capitalize on the momentum. My hopes are high for Sony’s Spider-Noir, which is shaping up to be a star-studded affair.
Do you think Morbius and Madame Web were done dirty by Marvel? Let us know in the comments below.