This article may contain spoilers for Morbius. Read on with caution.Ever since the Morbius trailer featured an appearance by Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes aka The Vulture, there has been a lingering question of exactly which universe the movie will be set in. Following Spider-Man: No Way Home, it seemed like anything was possible, anytime, anywhere, so with hints littering the Morbius trailer that Spider-Man is a presence in the universe, and hints by both Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures that their future collaboration may not be entirely limited to movies centering on Spider-Man himself, where does that leave Morbius? Director Daniel Espinosa has now confirmed that The Vulture in Morbius and in Spider-Man: Homecoming are one and the same.
With so many facets of the Marvel multiverse opening up and Sony and Marvel Studios seemingly working together in a number of ways to make some of those storylines work, it is quite easy to see why fans of the MCU and Sony Universe of Spider-Man Characters would get confused by the appearance of an MCU character like Toomes in the world of Morbius with seemingly no other tie at all. Now director Espinosa has clarified how Vulture is in Morbius, and that it is the same character and not some variant of him. He told CinemaBlend:
“At the end of Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home, and in No Way Home itself, it is clearly established that it is possible for characters to transfer from one Multiverse to another. The events of No Way Home had the effect of transferring Venom and Vulture (and maybe others ) back and forth between the MCU and the Venom Universe.”
What Part Does Michael Keaton’s Vulture Have To Play In Sony’s Universe?
Espinosa’s comments may have cleared up a little of how Vulture makes an appearance in Morbius, but it doesn’t quite explain how he is seemingly transported from the MCU in error considering the spell in No Way Home was specifically meant to draw in those who know Spider-Man from other universes, and then send them back by the end of the movie. However, it was shown at the end of No Way Home in the post-credit scene that a small part of Venom was able to remain in the MCU after Eddie Brock was transported back to his own world, so does that make it too much of a leap to believe that something could have inadvertently sent Vulture to a different universe by accident?
What we don’t know is exactly how long Vulture will be in the Sony universe for, or exactly what his purpose there will be. If not for the Covid pandemic, Morbius would have been released before Spider-Man: No Way Home, and that leads into rumors that Vulture’s appearances in the movie are in two post-credit scenes that are believed to see him arrive in the universe that has no record of his crimes, and he is allowed to go about his business as a free man.
This would be very similar to the post-credit scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and the sync issues with the movie’s release dates could partially be to blame for things not stacking up as they may have, but even that still doesn’t completely explain away what would make Vulture a complete anomaly in Doctor Strange’s spell. Perhaps all will be revealed when Morbius is released next week, or maybe will have to wait a little longer to get a clearer picture of what is going on between the two universes.