We’ve known for a long time that Michael Keaton would be returning as Spider-Man: Homecoming villain Adrian Toomes in Sony’s Morbius, but the events of No Way Home have raised several interesting questions as to how he ends up coming face-to-face with Jared Leto’s titular antihero.
We thought we had it all figured out when the post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage merged Sony’s Spider-Man Universe with Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the first stinger of Tom Holland’s recent smash hit sent Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock back to where he came from in an instant, seemingly underlining that the two superhero mythologies exist in different pockets of reality.
However, that still doesn’t explain how Keaton’s Vulture ends up in the Morbius, and Leto vaguely teased how and why Homecoming‘s big bad has migrated over to Sony’s shared series in the film’s official press notes (via TheDirect).
“One of the great things about being part of the larger universe is you get to plant Easter eggs – you get to pull on some other characters to jump in and join your party and surprise people… I couldn’t think of someone I’d rather work with than Michael Keaton – he’s one of my favorites.”
The slow build towards an eventual Sinister Six spinoff is a line of inquiry worth investigating, but Morbius featuring either references or Easter Eggs to pretty much every live-action iteration of Spider-Man we’ve ever seen within the space of a two-minute trailer only served to raise more curiosity without offering any answers.
On the plus side, we’ve only got to wait until April 1 to find out, when Morbius finally hits the big screen 21 months behind schedule.