SPIDER-MAN 4 Rumored To Feature Michael Keaton's Vulture - Is Marvel Studios Retconning MORBIUS?

SPIDER-MAN 4 Rumored To Feature Michael Keaton's Vulture - Is Marvel Studios Retconning MORBIUS?

A crazy new rumour about Marvel Studios' Spider-Man 4 suggests Michael Keaton is being lined up to make his return as The Vulture despite being transported to another reality in Morbius. Check it out...

By JoshWilding - Nov 05, 2023 09:11 AM EST
Filed Under: Spider-Man

The MCU's Peter Parker first squared off with Adrian Toomes/The Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming. The villain, who had a grudge against Iron Man, figured out Spidey's secret identity and pushed the wall-crawler to his limit before ultimately being defeated. 

Now, scooper Daniel Richtman is reporting that Michael Keaton is being lined up to return as The Vulture in Marvel Studios' Spider-Man 4.

When we last saw Toomes, he was behind bars and seemingly accepting of his fate. However, Mac Gargan, a crook injured during an altercation with Spidey, suggested he was going to force The Vulture to reveal who is beneath the hero's mask. 

Whether he did or not is now irrelevant as Doctor Strange's spell made everyone forget Peter exists. As for The Vulture, his MCU return comes as a surprise seeing as Morbius featured his bizarre and unexpected arrival in the "Spider-Verse" that Venom calls home. 

Morbius' post-credits scene was a result of reshoots. Original plans called for the Living Vampire to cross paths with Toomes during some sort of jailbreak, likely because the movie went into production at a time when Sony Pictures had decided - during production on Spider-Man: Far From Home - to end its partnership with Marvel Studios. 

That was going to see Tom Holland's web-slinger brought into the same world Sony's Venom and Morbius movies take place in, likely without any sort of explanation. Thankfully, common sense prevailed and Spider-Man will remain part of the MCU moving forward. 

Spider-Man: No Way Home, however, saw Sony use the events of that movie to reveal Toomes had mysteriously been transported there when all those Variant villains were returned home. Stranded on the wrong planet, The Vulture was freed from captivity, rebuilt his suit, and decided to recruit Morbius to a seemingly heroic team. 

The sequence was ridiculed by fans and this news suggests the idea - or Toomes' role in it, at least - has been scrapped. 

The Multiverse could come into play, particularly with Madame Web on the horizon, but it's hard to believe Marvel Studios is willing or interested in taking cues from Avi Arad's live-action Spider-Verse. 

If The Vulture has been returned to his rightful timeline, though, he may well still remember who Peter is. After all, he was off-world when the spell finished, creating a possible magical loophole. Whether this is potentially leading to Scorpion's debut is hard to say, though The Kingpin has previously been rumoured as Spider-Man 4's big bad. 

Let us know your thoughts and theories in the comments section.

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GhostDog
GhostDog - 11/5/2023, 9:06 AM
They really forget that they set up Scorpion lol
braunermegda
braunermegda - 11/5/2023, 9:11 AM
@GhostDog - dude, don't pay attention to another rumor. This site is a joke.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 11/5/2023, 11:28 AM
@braunermegda - you’re not wrong. It’s a rumor mill solely nowadays
KWilly
KWilly - 11/5/2023, 11:55 AM
@GhostDog - Honestly, that little piece of symbiote that was left in the MCU from NWH could go to Gargan.

Origame
Origame - 11/5/2023, 5:04 PM
@KWilly - I still don't think that's the way to go.

We still haven't had a proper adaptation of the eddie/Peter dynamic in movies. Also not a single attempt to give us scorpion. So I really don't see the need to jump gargan straight to venom.

Besides, his time as venom was to be a total jobber.
StSteven
StSteven - 11/5/2023, 6:00 PM
@Origame - Totally agree with you there. Plus it's just unnecessary at this point when there's a ton of stuff left to do with Eddie as Venom and literally everything yet to do for Scorpion before they should even think about Venom-Scorpion or any other Venom-other-character crossover. This isn't the comics where they're running out of new ideas for Venom so they just pass the symbiote (or its offspring) around like a bad rash (looking at you Venom-Widow).
Gabimaru
Gabimaru - 11/5/2023, 9:10 AM
I hope they bring scorpion to the mix this time. It's time to get the payoff they set in homecoming mid credits. it's the perfect opportunity how they set up peter this time with daily bugle and just being a friendly neighborhood. No cosmic stuff just street crime and scorpion is the perfect villain to fill that up.
cubrn
cubrn - 11/5/2023, 9:16 AM
@Gabimaru - I want Kingpin trying to take out street level heroes and have him hire Scorpion to get the job done.
Vigor
Vigor - 11/5/2023, 9:20 AM
@cubrn - scorpion and bullseye! Maybe Nuke too
ImBatman4realz
ImBatman4realz - 11/5/2023, 9:55 AM
@cubrn - this is what I was saying yesterday after seeing that they got the tone of Kingpin correct on the Echo trailer.

I had told written that one off as unnecessary, but then the trailer got me hopeful that they’ll get Daredevil, Punisher, Jessica Jones, Ghost Rider, and Blade correct
Gabimaru
Gabimaru - 11/5/2023, 10:12 AM
@cubrn - That one exactly! so peter and matt can team up in this street level new york
Timerider
Timerider - 11/5/2023, 10:44 AM
@cubrn - that might happen now because of all the praise from the Echo trailer. I can see Kingpin, Vulture, and Daredevil or Matt showing up at some point in Spider-man 4, maybe even Jennifer Walters
Vigor
Vigor - 11/5/2023, 9:15 AM
Toomes ending up in sonyverse can be explained simply. Peter messed with the spell like 3 times. We all know that 1 of those times resulted in the 5 villains stepping through. But perhaps one of the other 2 mess ups did something funky, such as transporting someone that knows who spiderman is, to another universe (Vulture)
ImBatman4realz
ImBatman4realz - 11/5/2023, 9:57 AM
@Vigor - Josh just needs every plot point spoon-fed to him and screen. It used to be the same kind of gripes with the FoX-Men, and now he’s on the hype train that they’ll be coming to the MCU through multiverse blah blah blah (that multiverse stuff needs to hurry up and end).

I’m in the minority with this, but I actually liked Morbius.
Timerider
Timerider - 11/5/2023, 10:50 AM
@Vigor - if you see Toomes, you should see Kingpin sitting in jail too, maybe even Frank Castle is incarcerated behind bars too. There’s numerous ways this could all go down, it depends on the writers really.
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 11/5/2023, 9:31 AM
I doubt Morbius was ever canon to begin with.

Then again, I haven't watched it either, but I doubt anyone was gonna go back to the Morbius movie to make sure everything lines up.
ImBatman4realz
ImBatman4realz - 11/5/2023, 10:00 AM
@OrgasmicPotatoe - can’t hate something if you haven’t watched it. I liked the movie 🤷🏻‍♂️

Also, Sony owns all of the film rights to these characters. Marvel Studios has to play nice to make any Spider-Man stuff. Through more multiverse BS, this could happen… but I wouldn’t believe Josh’s scoops/rumors to begin with.

The guy is a major hack
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 11/5/2023, 11:00 AM
@ImBatman4realz - Never said i hated it, just that I doubt they'll want to assosciate a more successful product with Morbius.
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 11/5/2023, 9:35 AM
Also, on a different note

GIVE MICHAEL MANDO HIS DUE
Timerider
Timerider - 11/5/2023, 10:56 AM
@OrgasmicPotatoe - agreed, we need to see new villains for Spider-man. Along with new allies like Frank Castle and Matt Murdock. It’s the friendly neighborhood Spider-man.
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 11/5/2023, 11:02 AM
@Timerider - Dude, I wish. My ideal Spider-Man 4 would be Kingpin blackmailing Jonah into bankrolling the Scorpion project, and have Spider-Man and Daredevil team-up against them.
ImBatman4realz
ImBatman4realz - 11/5/2023, 9:52 AM
Josh seems to forget that the film rights to these characters are on loan to Marvel from Sony, AND that Sony has worked/collaborated with Marvel Studios on each MCU Spider-Man movie so far. Won’t be any different.

Whether they “retcon” and brings Vulture back through multiverse shenanigans (man that stuff’s getting old and lazy), or he stays in the Spider-Verse, I don’t necessarily believe everything leak online. One thing’s for sure, I definitely don’t believe the things I read from Josh…
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 11/5/2023, 10:12 AM
Seeing how the villains returned to their universe in No Way Home, I don't think it'll be any different for Toomes. Bet he's back in the MCU.

Still think Scorpion should be the main villain in Spider-Man 4 though. Maybe by the end he's back in prison, and he and Toomes continue their alliance of sorts (to set up the Sinister Six?)
Matchesz
Matchesz - 11/5/2023, 10:44 AM
Keaton as Vulture is cool but John Malkovich as vulture would have been more comic accurate
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