Morbius director Daniel Espinosa has opened up about his 2022 critical and box office flop and revealed that he believes he was not a good fit to direct the movie. Espinosa is best known for crime thrillers like Easy Money, Safe House, and Child 44. His 2017 film Life generated a great deal of buzz because Sony Pictures produced it, and many thought it was going to be a stealth prequel to Venom. While that did not turn out to be the case, Espinosa was hired to direct Morbius in June 2018 in what would eventually become a four-year project, since Morbius was delayed from 2020 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the release of Morbius, Espinosa has moved on, and is back to his roots with the thrillers Madame Luna and The Helicopter Heist. Speaking with Deadline, Espinosa talked about his struggle making Morbius, a film that notably went through various behind-the-scenes changes. Espinosa implies he clashed with Sony Pictures and that they should have hired another director for the film. He said:
“To make a movie through committee, I think, is very hard, and I felt in the end that maybe a different director would have been a better fit. I’m known amongst the studios to be a person with a lot of opinions, and maybe they were not looking for that kind of director.”
Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Has Many Behind the Scenes Problems
Morbius was originally set to be released on July 31, 2020, but was delayed to March 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down theaters. It was then delayed three more times before finally being released on April 1, 2022. The movie was a box office flop and a critical bomb. Morbius was roasted online by fans, so much so that the “It’s Morbin Time” meme became widespread enough for Sony to mistakenly take it as an opportunity to try and capitalize on the interest with a rerelease of the film. Morbius then became the rare film that bombed at the box office twice.
Sony Pictures used the many delays to meddle with Morbius. The film’s trailers showcased Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes, aka The Vulture, in a scene cut from the final film and replaced with a different scene. The finished post-credits scene with Toomes seems tacked on, appearing to accommodate the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Entire subplots from Morbius were cut, and the trailer notably featured an image of Spider-Man that was cut from the finished film, with the only reference to Spider-Man being during the conversation between Morbius and Toomes in the final moments of the film.
Related
How Fifty Shades of Grey Led To Venom: The Last Dance
Her web connects them all, but it is not Madame Web that ties Fifty Shades and Venom together.
Espinosa’s experience with Morbius seems to be a common one among filmmakers making Sony Marvel films. S.J. Clarkson reportedly had to undergo numerous studio notes and reshoots for Madame Web, a movie that performed even worse at the box office and with critics than Morbius. While no behind-the-scenes issues have been reported by J.C. Chandor’s Kraven the Hunter, that film has undergone many release date delays. Kraven the Hunter was originally set to open in theaters on January 13, 2023, and then October 6, 2023. Due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, the studio delayed Kraven the Hunter to August 30, 2024, but then, just four months before its release, the studio delayed the film a fourth time to December 13, 2024.
Aside from the Venom and Spider-Verse movies and, of course, their MCU collaborations with Marvel Studios, Sony has struggled to find their footing with the Spider-Man property in the last few years. The upcoming releases of Kraven the Hunter and Venom: The Last Dance could well seal the fate of Sony’s Universe of Spider-Man Characters, one way or another.