Part of the fun of superhero films is finding all the references and easter eggs that the filmmakers put in so that comic fans can have some fun callbacks to the source material. Morbius is no different. While not a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it does still tie into the multiverse story that they are currently in the middle of telling. Sony has been trying to get their own shared universe off the ground for a while, even before Spider-Man entered into the shared agreement with Marvel Studios. Here they seem to be laying the groundwork for what their future plans will be.
Warning!!! There Will Be Spoilers Going Forward!
The research lab that Michael Morbius works for has a significant history in Spider-Man lore. While most old-school comic fans associate Peter Parker working as a news photographer for the Daily Bugle, in the comics he left that profession behind a long time ago. Fans tend to forget that he is also a scientific genius to go along with his superpowers. He left the Daily Bugle and went to work for Horizon Labs for a stretch where he got to create a lot of tech to use during his Spider-Man outings. After a while, he left Horizon Labs to create his own company Parker Industries. While this leans towards Spider-Man it’s still a fun Morbius Easter Egg.
When Morbius decides to move his experiments to the next level, he acknowledges that they will not be exactly legal. By skipping the red tape he hopes to confirm his DNA experiments will help cure the sickness that has plagued him his whole life. To help this along he enlists the help of a friend to secure him a cargo ship to take him to international waters where he will not be held to any laws. The ship that he ends up with is the LCV Murnau. This is a reference to the director of the famous vampire film Nosferatu, F.W. Murnau. The vampire character in that film also takes a ship to his destination and all the passengers end up being killed by the title character.
In the current iteration of Spider-Man that we see in the MCU, The Daily Bugle has been updated from a newspaper to the more modern equivalent of streaming “news” shows with J. Jonah Jameson doing the editorializing straight into the camera. Here in the Morbius universe it’s still a newspaper and is seen throughout the film. The masthead at the top should look familiar as it’s actually the same one used in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films. While being a Morbius easter egg it ties into the original Spider-Man movies and the Venom films.
With the Daily Bugle back to being a newspaper, we get a few fun easter eggs in the smaller articles. One of them claims that the Spider-Man villain we have yet to see on the big screen, The Chameleon, has escaped. It seems he has had some run-ins with the authorities in this reality. In the comics, The Chameleon is a master of disguise and subterfuge. He has had a lot of memorable battles with the wall-crawler over the years and this looks like a fun setup to bring him to the big screen.
Another little easter egg to pop up thanks to the Daily Bugle is a reference to Black Cat. In a side article when they show the story on Morbius being on the run, we see the headline Black Cat: Friend Or Foe? Comic fans will know that Black Cat is Felicia Hardy, and she has a complicated relationship with Spider-Man. Sometimes they are enemies, other times they might be in a romantic relationship, or just superhero allies. Think of her relationship along the lines of Catwoman’s relationship with Batman. Felicia has powers that can alter luck probability to give bad luck to others.
While the film doesn’t take place in the MCU, we are told quickly that this does take place in the same reality as Sony’s Venom films. When FBI agents are combing through the crime scene on the LCV Murnau, one of them mentions that they haven’t had something this interesting “since that thing in San Francisco.” That thing happens to be the events of the Venom film. Then later, when confronting some criminals he is asked who he is. He responds with “I Am Venom” before baring his fangs. Surely we’ll see Venom and Morbius interact at some point.
Morbius is captured by the FBI after he tries to run out of Horizon Labs with a bag full of artificial blood. He has to quell his hunger before his body begins to break down or the hunger overtakes him, and he attacks someone uncontrollably. While he’s being interrogated, he says he has to feed. He quips “You don’t want to see me when I’m hungry.”
This is a fun twist on a commonly used phrase in the old Incredible Hulk TV series from the 70s. The renamed David “Bruce” Banner would tell someone that was pressuring him not to make him angry. He would follow that up with “You don’t want to see me when I’m angry.”
In this film, Martine acts as Michael’s love interest and scientific partner. By the time the movie moves towards its end, she is injured by Milo and left for Morbius to find. He drinks her blood and some of his ends up falling into her wound. Just before the credits roll, we see her open her eyes, and they are a vamped-out red color.
In the comics, a similar situation happened, and she became a vampire, like Morbius. Sadly, over time she was not able to contain her hunger for human blood and our hero was forced to kill her. If this story continues on we’ll have to see if her fate ends up the same as her comics counterpart. This may be the saddest Morbius easter egg.
Back in Spider-Man: No Way Home, we saw the multiversal rift open up that was bringing enemies from other realities to the MCU. In the post-credits scenes, we see that rift from the other side. Here it opens up and instead of pulling enemies from this reality, one actually gets left here from the MCU. Adrian Toomes, once again played by Michael Keaton, appears in the jail cell previously inhabited by Morbius. It’s said through a news report on the radio that Toomes would be released since there was no record of him committing any crimes.
Once he’s released he dons his Vulture suit and meets up with Morbius to discuss teaming up. This looks like Sony laying the groundwork for their Sinister Six spin-off they have already announced. They started setting up this idea in their previous Spider-Man film The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Those plans would end up being scrapped when they canceled all their Spider-Man projects and teamed up with Marvel Studios to bring Spider-Man to the MCU. Looks like they are working on making it happen once again.
It’s always fun to point out all the fun Morbius Easter Eggs, but in a rarity, we get to point out the easter eggs that didn’t make it into the film. Eagle-eyed viewers that watched the early trailers for Morbius may have noticed that two pretty significant things that were promised in the preview didn’t show up in the film. One big change seems to be that Morbius went from being in the MCU to being moved over to the Venom reality.
Previous trailers showed Morbius walking through an alley that showed a picture of Spider-Man on a wall with the word Murderer spray-painted over it. This seems to line up with the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home where Mysterio sent out a video claiming that Peter Parker was Spider-Man and had murdered him with Stark Tech Drones. Now any reference to Spider-Man directly has been scrubbed from the film completely. Well except for a name-drop from The Vulture. But that doesn’t line up either as a scene between Vulture and Morbius crossing paths at the jail was cut. In the trailer scene, Vulture sort of mocks Morbius for getting caught.
Now we see that they don’t even meet until the post-credits scene and it’s to team up. Michael Keaton did claim that he showed up to do some Vulture reshoots on the film. This would seem to be the new scene of Toomes popping up in his new jail cell and maybe to record the new voice-over he has with Morbius when he presents the idea of a team-up. This one was easy as it was just Vulture with his helmet on. The details of the change of reality don’t seem to be public at the moment but it’s an odd decision to change this at the last minute.
Did we miss any? Let us know of any Morbius easter eggs you caught in the comments.