Michael Keaton has broke his silence about the Vulture’s confusing cameo appearance at the end of Morbius.
During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Keaton was asked if he fully understood the purpose of Adrian Toombs/Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming showing up in the same universe as Jared Leto‘s Living Vampire.
“No, no idea. None. Zero,” Keton replied.
“I mean, they said ‘Okay’ . . . and even they couldn’t quite explain it. They said, ‘Look, let me just kind of tell you,’ and I go, ‘I really don’t quite know what you’re talking about or even who some of these people are,’ and he said, ‘Okay, let me explain,’ but it was complicated because, obviously, they were looking down the road . . .”
Keaton originated The Vulture in the Marvel Cinematic Universe-set Spider-Man movie in 2017 where he was selling stolen Chitauri technology as weapons on the black market. Sent to prison after the Wall-Crawler foiled his plans, Vulture was not seen again until Morbius’ mid-credits sequence where the multiverse crossover events of 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home led to him teleporting into Sony’s Spider-Man Universe alongside Venom. At the time of release, Keaton recalled being confused by the filmmakers’ explanation for his appearance.
“I’m nodding like I know what the f— they’re talking about. I go, ‘Uh-huh.’ And I’m thinking, ‘You may as well be explaining quantum physics right now to me. All I know is I just know my guy. And I know the basics,’” Keaton said. “So finally, they were looking at me, and they just started laughing. They said, ‘You don’t know what we’re talking about, do you?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t, no idea what you’re talking about.’“
The poor reception to Morbius
Based on Marvel’s Morbius the Living Vampire comics, the Spider-Man spinoff from Sony was slammed by critics and underperformed at the box office, grossing $167 worldwide. Leto went on to win the Worst Actor award at the 2023 Razzie Awards where the movie was nominated in five categories.
Morbius is now streaming on Disney+.
