Despite Spider-Man: No Way Home dominating the global box office, it seems as though Sony is considerably less confident in January's box office potential as Omicron continues to run rampant across the globe, as the studio has officially announced this evening that their next Marvel film, Morbius, has been delayed from January 28 to April 1, 2022.
The Daniel Espinosa-directed superhero creature feature will still be the first Marvel release of the year, but its delay couldn't come at a worse time as interest in the film has recently reached an all-time high, due in no small part to the spectacular exploits of No Way Home.
For the time being, Sony has only moved Morbius, leaving the Tom Holland/Mark Wahlberg-starring Uncharted on February 18, so the one delay may be their only big move during the early part of this year as studios attempt to re-navigate the latest COVID-19 variant. Meanwhile, Paramount's Scream is still slated to open exclusively in theaters on January 14.
Morbius now leaves a relatively uncrowded January and moves to a busy April, where it'll open a week ahead of Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Universal's Ambulance and two weeks before Warner Bros.' Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
On the bright side, the film did recently complete a round of additional photography, which reportedly added more scenes with Michael Keaton's Vulture, so it's not exactly out of the realm of possibility that they could use the extra time to try and add a few more surprises before it hits theaters.
The upcoming Spider-Man spinoff stars Academy Award-winner Jared Leto (Blade Runner 2049; Suicide Squad) in the title role, with a supporting cast consisting of Matt Smith (Terminator: Genisys; Doctor Who), Adria Arjona (6 Underground; Triple Frontier), 2x Primetime Emmy-nominee Jared Harris (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; Chernobyl), Al Madrigal (I'm Dying Up Here; About a Boy), Tyrese Gibson (F9; Transformers), and Michael Keaton (Spider-Man: Homecoming; Batman) as the Vulture.
Morbius is now slated to open in theaters on April 1, 2022.
One of the most compelling and conflicted characters in Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters comes to the big screen as Oscar® winner Jared Leto transforms into the enigmatic antihero Michael Morbius. Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder and determined to save others suffering his same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts a desperate gamble. While at first, it seems to be a radical success, a darkness inside him is unleashed. Will good override evil – or will Morbius succumb to his mysterious new urges?