Jared Leto is leaving his tattoos and clown face behind for fangs and claws.
He's also leaving the DC Comics universe for Sony's Marvel universe.
Leto is slated to star in Morbius which is filming now.
Morbius the Living Vampire, first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 in October, 1971. Dr. Michael Morbius, PhD, MD, transformed himself through an experiment intended to cure his rare blood condition.
Now Sony, which owns the rights to several Marvel characters, will bring Morbius to the big screen as the second film in their Sony Marvel universe. Venom, starring Tom Hardy was their first installment.
Leto recently gave fans their first look at the film through his Instagram. He captioned the post:
"Because no one else will walk this path...this place of shadows, where we do what must be done, no matter the cost. #MORBIUS"
Watch the video clip here.
Leto famously—or infamously—took some interesting steps to get into the character of the Joker for 2016's Suicide Squad. One wonders what he's doing for Morbius.
Producer Avi Arad said:
"Wait until you see the way he looks, what we have done with this character, you will love it."
Alluding to future Sony projects, Arad added:
"There are so many other great characters on the way, too. You will see. We're just getting started."
Films featuring Black Cat, Silver Sable and Jackpot are also in development at Sony.
Arad pointed to the more obscure characters as a draw for actors.
"This is the great thing for us now, that an actor like [Leto], and an actor like [Venom star] Tom [Hardy] wanted to have their own character. But the character they love."
He added:
"Both of them, very hard to get them to do a movie. You actually cannot get them. We went in, we sat with them, and everybody told us, 'Oh, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.' Nothing. That's what he wanted to do. We went to this place with them, and he just…good actors want to be different than what they are."
People had varying reactions to the news of Leto's latest role.
Adria Arjona, Pacific Rim: Uprising, has been cast as the film's female lead. Matt Smith and Tyrese Gibson also join the cast in as yet undisclosed roles.
