Warning: Full spoilers follow for Morbius. Do you want to know if the movie has a post-credits scene? We’ll tell you right here: It has two mid-credits scenes. Read on for all the details.
After years of COVID-related delays, Sony and Marvel’s Morbius is finally upon us. And while the film largely serves as a standalone entry for the Living Vampire, the ending nevertheless sets the stage for what might come next in Sony’s live-action Spider-Verse – while also leaving it vague whether Spider-Man even exists in the universe Morbius inhabits.
IGN recently spoke to both Morbius director Daniel Espinosa and star Jared Leto about the ending and which Marvel film universe it exists in, so if you haven’t seen Morbius yet fly away like a bat outta hell because we are about to SPOIL this whole movie to death!
Morbius Ending Explained
In the climactic battle in New York City, Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) ultimately must kill his best friend-turned-vampiric enemy Milo (Matt Smith) using a chemical injection of his own creation. While vampires exist as part of this reality’s pop culture, they are not real so folkloric methods such as crosses, holy water and sunlight have no effect on the likes of Morbius and Milo since they’re Living Vampires and not the supernatural undead.
Milo goaded Morbius into this final conflict by attacking and mortally wounding Michael’s colleague/love interest, Dr. Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona). Morbius attempts to stop Martine from dying by letting a drop of his blood fall into her mouth.
Thanks to this bloody kiss, Martine survives — but has Michael Morbius saved her or cursed her by turning into a fellow Living Vampire?
Martine also became a vampire in the Marvel Comics so any potential sequel will likely explore her character’s transformation from a life-saver to someone who now craves human blood.
In a recent interview with IGN, Arjona expressed her hopes for what might be in store for Martine should there be a sequel. “I really love the idea of Martine going through this battle within herself as well. Being bloodthirsty is something and then being a human is completely just something different. And I think Martine is such an anchor and has her moral compass very well placed. That being shifted for her, that would be really interesting to see,” Arjona said. “I would like her to go so far [to] one side that it's a hard journey to come back to that moral compass. I think that'll be fun to play as an actor and I think it'll be fun for people to see that. I also want to see them together. What does that mean? How does Michael help her come back? I think that would be really interesting.”
The film ends with Morbius leaving a revived Martine behind on a rooftop, flying off into the night sky. He remains a fugitive accused of murders that Milo actually committed. As Morbius flies toward the camera the screen cuts to the movie’s purplish logo. But there’s still more story left to tell…
Does Morbius Have a Post-Credits Scene? Morbius Mid-Credits Scenes Explained
Morbius has two mid-credits scenes, the first of which directly ties into the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home. But before we move forward we must remind you that Sony controls the screen rights to Spider-Man and his ancillary characters and that Spidey has only been a part of the MCU thanks to very complicated sharing deals struck between Sony Pictures and Disney-owned Marvel Studios.
Those deals are not meant to last in perpetuity, as fans were reminded of when it looked like Tom Holland’s Spider-Man was leaving the MCU a few years ago. Morbius’ mid-credits scenes certainly foreshadow what Sony is mulling for their own live-action Marvel universe.
The first mid-credits scene sees a colorful cosmic rift appear in the night sky over Manhattan. It looks similar to the one seen during the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home when Doctor Strange restored the three Spideys and the villains (plus Eddie Brock and Venom) to their own respective universes.
It then cuts to a New York prison where Adrian Toomes, aka Vulture (Michael Keaton), materializes inside a cell. Toomes reacts to this, checking himself to see if he’s intact. Despite the baffling, cosmic nature of what just happened, Toomes seems to immediately understand he’s in a different reality as he quips, “I hope the food in this joint is better.”
There’s then a TV newscast about the inexplicable appearance of this mysterious prisoner and how, since there is no record of his existence, Toomes will be released.
After a few more credits roll, we are given Morbius’ second and final mid-credits scene. Michael Morbius, in human form, is driving along a coast. The terrain and geography would suggest he’s relocated out west after running afoul of the law in New York.
He pulls over to an isolated area and steps out of his car. Morbius reacts to a mechanical roar building in the distance, whirls of dirt swirling in the air. It’s Vulture, in full costume, flying in. (How Toomes, who didn’t exist in this universe, somehow got his exact outfit and wings goes unexplained since he materialized wearing his prison uniform.)
In what’s evidently a prearranged meet, Vulture tells Morbius that he’s read up on him since arriving in this universe, a fantastical happening he presumes Spider-Man had something to do with. Vulture tells Morbius that guys like them should form a team in order to do “some good.” Morbius responds that he finds the offer interesting.
And with that, we have the official planting of the seeds for a Sinister Six movie. (It should be noted that Sony was developing a Sinister Six movies years ago, at one point scheduling it for a late 2016 release before the studio dropped their plans for an Amazing Spider-Man 3 and struck their deal with Marvel to reboot the character in the MCU.)
But if you have a Sinister Six composed of Spidey villains then naturally you will need a Spider-Man for them to go up against, which begs the question: which Spider-Man will they fight? Because, clearly, it’s not Tom Holland’s Spider-Man since he remained in his own universe.
Between that and Eddie Brock/Venom being returned to their own reality at the end of No Way Home, it certainly seems like Sony is planning for a post-MCU (and maybe even post-Tom Holland) Spiderverse of its own with this Sinister Six movie set-up.
But why would Michael Morbius, who is portrayed throughout his solo film as a good-natured antihero, be enticed to join forces with someone like Vulture who was an incarcerated criminal in his former universe? Morbius’ moral compass seemed better than that.
But, as Leto told IGN in a recent interview, “some of this stuff I really can't tell you unless I'm going to kill you, but certainly, (Vulture’s) reputation precedes him. Morbius is at a place where maybe his options, he's exploring his options, put it that way.”
Which Marvel Universe Does Morbius Take Place In?
Morbius director Daniel Espinosa told IGN UK that his film is set in the Sony-verse or what he refers to as the Venom-verse. “Morbius exists within the Venom-verse, but as we know, those ‘verses will be able to cross each other in the future,” the director said. (The law enforcement characters in the film make mention of an incident in San Francisco and Morbius himself name-drops “Venom” at one point. Perhaps Venom is a sort of boogeyman to people in this universe?)
Curiously, Morbius himself doesn’t react in any clear way to Vulture’s mention of Spider-Man. Has he already heard about the wall-crawler from Vulture’s universe? Or is there another Spidey already established in this reality? None of that is clear and Espinosa remained tight-lipped about it.
The director refused to speculate when we pressed him on his film’s Daily Bugle easter egg that references Rhino. Is that Rhino the same version played by Paul Giamatti in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and, thus, is Andrew Garfield the Spidey of the Venom-verse?
“If I go into the specifics of that, there are people at Sony that will have me shot because then I will force them to commit to something,” Espinosa quipped. “I have my thoughts and opinions and they are in the movie, and that's what I'm pushing for. … The Morbius universe is the same universe as Venom and how the powers-that-be will commit to a certain hero is in their [plans], it's in a small briefcase that has a bomb around it. So, again, I will be killed.”
When the first trailers for Morbius debuted, they included a building mural of Spider-Man that strongly suggested – along with the appearance of Michael Keaton – the film took place in the MCU. However, the final version of Morbius has scrubbed most of the Spidey references glimpsed in the trailers. Gone are the Spider-Man mural, the Oscorp tower in the New York skyline, and the scenes of an exchange between Morbius and Adrian Toomes outside a jail.
Espinosa explained to IGN why these scenes and hints ended up on the cutting room floor and whether the mid-credits scenes were a late addition to the film:
“I think the end credit scene was there all along. I think that what we have with the movie when we worked on it over the last two and a half years, there's a bunch of stuff that is not in the movie, as in with any picture. Those small pieces are gifts that can be given out later. There are certain surprises. But mostly, some things end up on the cutting floor and some things end up in the movie. But the concept of the coda was there from the very first script.”
What did you think of Morbius’ mid-credits scenes and their Sinister Six set-up? Are you upset that Morbius is not set in the MCU after all? Let us know in the comments.
For more on the Living Vampire, check out our Morbius review and watch the Morbius cast play our game of “Vampire Movie or Marvel Character?”.
