The surprising success of Morbius on Netflix has reopened the possibility for a sequel to Sony's critically derided Spider-Man spinoff. The film dropped on Netflix without any prior fanfare and quickly rose up the ranks of the streaming service's top 10 titles. While many of these views may be driven by the infamous "Morbin' Time" meme, the impressive numbers may be enough to convince Sony to give Jared Leto's antihero another shot.
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On release, Morbius was poorly received critically and commercially, with an opening weekend gross of just $39 million, which wasn't a total disaster given the movie's $75 million budget. However, the numbers are poor compared to another Spider-Man villain movie, Venom, which recouped the majority of its $100 million budget with an opening weekend gross of $80.2 million. Worse still, Morbius flopped for a second time, when the virality of the "It's Morbin' Time" meme convinced Sony to re-release the movie, grossing an incredibly disappointing $300,000 over that weekend. With Morbius now the second most-watched film on Netflix, it's entirely possible that a resurgence in interest could see Sony finally green light the Morbius sequel.
Unlike Venom, which clearly set up a sequel in its mid-credits reveal of Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady a.k.a Carnage, Morbius instead introduced Michael Keaton's Vulture into Sony's Spider-Man adjacent universe. The scene between Jared Leto and Michael Keaton appears to set up Sony's Sinister Six team-up movie rather than Morbius 2. Sinister Six is still clearly pushing ahead, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Kraven the Hunter due for release in 2023. There are also plans for a Madame Web movie, another Venom sequel, and a spinoff film featuring superhero wrestler El Muerto, but there are no current plans for Morbius 2. It might be that Sony is waiting to see how well these other Spider-Man adjacent movies perform at the box office before committing to more Morbius. The potential new audience introduced to the first movie through Netflix in this interim period may now be enough to improve Morbius 2's box office potential and secure a studio green light.
Everything We Know About A Morbius Sequel
What is known about Morbius 2 is that it doesn't currently feature on Sony's slate of upcoming Spider-Man adjacent movies between now and June 2024. The closing scenes of Morbius suggest that a sequel would find Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona) dealing with her new vampire physiology, becoming either friend or foe to Michael. It would also likely build on the mid-credits introduction of Adrian Toomes to Michael Morbius, as they decide to "do some good."
Jared Harris and Matt Smith as Dr. Nicholas and Milo likely won't return for the sequel, having been killed off in the initial movie. As a mentor of sorts, Jared Harris' character could conceivably come back in flashbacks, but he's unlikely to have a substantial role in Morbius 2. It's highly likely that Jared Leto's Michael Morbius would return for a sequel, as Sony wouldn't have contracted him for just one movie, despite how poorly it performed. For example, Tyrese Gibson, who played Simon Stroud, shared on Instagram that he'd signed a three-movie deal, so it's highly likely that Leto will have signed something similar. Simon Stroud was a regular character in the Morbius comics, so it makes sense for the character to feature in future movies.
With no sequel announced by Sony, potential plot points and casting is all there is to go on regarding Morbius 2. It's also unclear how much the poor reception to Morbius will affect Sony's plans for their big-screen Sinister Six, which currently bears no resemblance to the one from the comics. At this stage, it appears to be more like a Spider-Man villain version of The Suicide Squad than the deadly supervillain team from the comics. Whatever form it takes means that audiences are still likely to see Michael Morbius at least one more time, even if that isn't in a direct Morbius sequel.
How Netflix Could Lead To Morbius 2 Happening
Between September 5th-11th, Morbius was streamed on Netflix 6,971,428 times, with total viewing 12,200,000 hours earning it a Top 5 slot. With an average movie theater ticket costing $9.57, the number of streams translates to a gross of $66,716,565.96, a significant improvement on Morbius' original opening weekend gross of $39 million. Sony could be enticed by these promising numbers, but should heed the lessons of the "It's Morbin' Time" debacle. Re-releasing Morbius based on an online meme was a disaster for Sony, and exemplified how studios don't quite understand internet sub-cultures. Jokes on Twitter, and a funny Jared Leto video on Instagram don't guarantee big box office numbers. Arguably, the "It's Morbin' Time" meme took on such a life of its own that seeing the full movie would likely have ruined the joke for people.
Morbin' Time is likely driving many of the views on Netflix, which explains the disparity between streams and hours viewed. With a runtime of 104 mins, the near 7 million streams equates to 12,083,808 hours, just under the total viewing figure given by Netflix. The additional hours are likely made up of people revisiting key scenes for the purposes of creating meme-worthy images. It would therefore be dangerous for Sony to base a Morbius sequel on these Netflix figures alone. However, if the film is gaining a "so bad, it's good" reputation through its new life on Netflix, then this cult status could be just enough to improve the box office takings for Morbius 2 and make the Jared Leto fronted sequel a real possibility.