Sony delays 'Morbius', starring Jared Leto, to January 2022

Watch: Trailer for Sony superhero movie Morbius

Sony has delayed its superhero movie Morbius until January 2022, vacating the weekend which is now set to be dominated by James Bond adventure No Time to Die.

The latest round of coronavirus-induced delays saw Universal move Daniel Craig’s 007 swansong to 8 October, 2021 — the same date previously occupied by Morbius.

Unsurprisingly, Sony has therefore decided to push Morbius back by three months and it will now arrive in cinemas on 21 January.

Read more: Most exciting movies coming in 2021

The studio has also delayed a handful of other major movies, including the Peter Rabbit sequel, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Uncharted and Cinderella, starring pop star Camila Cabello.

Thus far, Morbius’s bedfellow in the world of Spider-Man characters — Venom: Let There Be Carnage — is holding on firmly to its 25 June date.

Morbius stars Jared Leto as the scientist Michael Morbius, who takes extreme measures while attempting to cure himself of a rare blood disease.

He apparently succeeds, but the side effect is that he becomes a vampire with superhuman abilities.

Read more: New pictures from set of Venom sequel

The cast also includes Matt Smith as Morbius’s friend, Adria Arjona as his fiancée, Jared Harris as his mentor and Tyrese Gibson as an FBI agent.

In the director’s chair is Daniel Espinosa, who made Ryan Reynolds/Denzel Washington thriller Safe House and the 2017 sci-fi horror movie Life.

It has been implied that Morbius could create explicit connective tissue between Sony’s world of Spider-Man characters and the Tom Holland incarnation of the webslinger used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The first trailer for the movie featured a cameo appearance from Michael Keaton — who played Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming — but it is not clear whether he is playing the same role.

Read more: Doc Ock confirmed for Spider-Man 3

Morbius was originally due to be released in July 2020, but was subsequently delayed as a result of the coronavirus.

The latest round of delays will hopefully be the last, with vaccines providing a light at the end of the tunnel for cinemas.

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