Jared Leto, who is currently busy promoting his upcoming film Morbius, recently commended superhero movies for keeping cinema alive. Set to arrive next month, Morbius stars Jared Leto as the titular antihero, Dr. Michael Morbius, who attains vampire-like superhuman abilities after his attempts to cure his rare blood disease go awry. In an interview with Variety, Leto talked at length about the upcoming film and his future playing the character. The Oscar winner also mentioned how Marvel saved cinema after the pandemic wreaked havoc on the film industry.

Leto makes some bold claims, and many would disagree, but there is some truth in his words. Comic book movies and other established franchise films were the best-performing movies in the pandemic era, along with a few surprising exceptions like Dune. On the other hand, films by several acclaimed and bankable directors, like Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott, bombed. Both West Side Story and The Last Duel were made on a budget of $100 million and fell way below expectations at the box office.

“If it wasn’t for Marvel films, I don’t even know if theaters would exist. It doesn’t seem like there’s room for everyone, and that starts to become a little heartbreaking. I also have gratitude for these movies because they’re keeping cinema alive.”

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However, Leto is grateful to star in movies made for the big screen. “It’s a privilege to be part of a couple of movies in a row that are supporting cinema,” he said, referring to his last two films, House of Gucci and The Little Things. Leto also invoked his childhood memories while declaring himself a life-long cinephile. “I know how important that was for me as a kid… escaping to the movies. That cultural experience was quite informative and impactful, I saw movies in theaters that changed my life.”

It’s clear that movies mean a lot to Jared Leto, and his passion is visible in each one of his performances, even though he has received flak from his peers for going overboard with method-acting, which he refers to as “immersive work.” While Leto didn’t resort to his usual antics to get into character for Morbius, he did extensive research on the characters and even met doctors and patients living with incurable diseases. How well that translates into Leto’s performance in Morbius remains to be seen.

Jared Leto Has Promised Morbius Will Be Unlike Other Comic Book Movies

     Sony Pictures Releasing

Sony’s Morbius is not the usual superhero origin story, given that the titular character isn’t even a hero. Morbius the Living Vampire is a famous Spider-Man villain who occasionally acts as an anti-hero. Like most characters in Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery, Morbius too has a tragic backstory and sympathetic objectives. After the polarizing reception to his Joker in Suicide Squad, Jared Leto seemed done with comic book movies altogether, but Morbius gave him another crack at showcasing his acting abilities, but in a different film universe.

“Morbius gave me the opportunity to have this character that really makes three pretty significant transformations – He starts off very, very sick searching for a cure disease… then he finds a cure and it becomes powerful and stronger than he’s ever been before,” Leto told Deadline. “Then there is another transformation that happens. It was kind of the perfect role for me. Honestly, I enjoyed it quite a bit.”

Morbius is also important as it features references to every single Marvel film universe out there, including Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, the MCU, Venom, and Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man-verse. It’s still unclear which continuity Morbius takes place in.

Starring Jared Leto, Adria Arjona, Matt Smith, Tyrese Gibson, Jared Harris, and Michael Keaton, Morbius hits the screens on April 1, 2022.