Morbius Actor Makes Shocking Statement About The Movie's Relationship To The MCU

We currently live in a new golden age of comic book movies and TV shows, with Marvel and DC making exciting new releases practically every week of 2021. However, even though the success of superhero movies and TV shows feels like a very late 2010s phenomenon, comic book movies and shows from previous generations still have a way of influencing what we see now.

When it comes to Marvel, the biggest difference to understand is between Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The former refers to all the characters ever published under the Marvel banner. The "MCU" only refers to movies produced by Marvel itself, beginning in 2008 with "Iron Man." The divide exists today because back in the early days, Marvel habitually sold the rights to its characters to companies like 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Sony. In narrative terms, all these licensing deals essentially created a number of different realities that Marvel films may take place in. 

To be clear: if a film is in the MCU, it connects to every other film in the MCU. If it's not part of the MCU — I.E., the 20th Century Fox "X-Men" series — it's a standalone story. And whenever a new Marvel movie is released, the big question for casual viewers is which universe it takes place in.

"Morbius" is an upcoming film that will star Jared Leto as Michael Morbius, a scientist who accidentally turned himself into a vampire. Morbius is traditionally an adversary to Spider-Man. However, Spider-Man only officially joined the MCU in 2016, when Tom Holland appeared in "Captain America: Civil War." 

So, that leaves the question of whether "Morbius" is in the MCU or not. And recently, one actor from "Morbius," Tyrese Gibson, seemingly confirmed where the Living Vampire stands (or did he?).

In an interview with ComicBook.com promoting Gibson's role in the action film "F9," the actor was asked directly whether "Morbius" takes place in the MCU or not.

In response to this question, Gibson said "yes." The interviewer then asked, more specifically, if Morbius took place in the same reality as the "Avengers" movies, and Gibson repeated, "Yes."

As concrete as this sounds, though, it might be a good idea to take this with a grain of salt. For one, Gibson is just an actor in the film, not the writer, director, or producer. Secondly, Gibson could have been joking, or may just not be up to date on his knowledge about Marvel's licensing agreements. 

Fans have been debating this for some time, ever since the release of the official "Morbius" trailer: that's because while the trailer lists the film as "In association with Marvel," a tag which is typically used for non-MCU films, it also features an appearance by Michael Keaton's character, Adrian Toomes aka the Vulture, who previously appeared in "Spider-Man: Homecoming." That film was in the MCU, which would seem to indicate "Morbius" is as well.

Short of an official confirmation from Marvel itself, we'll hold off on stating definitively that "Morbius" is an MCU movie. However, Gibson's statement is the closest we've come to a confirmation so far.