Over the last two days epic trailers have been dropped by both Disney and Sony respectively. Each one is for an upcoming project that has been hotly anticipated every since the two projects were announced, I am of course talking about The Book of Boba Fett and the upcoming Spider-Man spinoff, Morbius.
For some folks, they know these characters from their long history in pop culture and their respective universes as a whole: Star Wars and Spider-Man/Marvel Comics; others know them only from modern adaptations. These projects were rumoured about for quite some time long before they were finally officially announced. Without further ado, let’s dive into the trailers:
The Book of Boba Fett
Just look at that beautiful trailer!
Temuera Morrison returns to the galaxy far far away as an aged Boba Fett, fresh off his work in the second season of The Mandalorian series. We were shown the aged and scarred Fett for the first time in the second season of the flagship title for Disney+ as he helped Din Djarin to fulfill his quest of returning Grogu to his kind. The story goes like this: Having assisted Din Djarin (the Mandalorian) in finding not just any jedi, but Luke Skywalker himself, Boba has returned to the planet where his reputation began. He entered Jabba’s palace and executed Bib Fortuna taking the throne of Jabba and his entire criminal network for himself.
The show appears to pick up right after this with Boba and his new right hand ally, Fennec Shand (played by the amazing Ming-Na Wen) working to establish Boba’s rule over the other members of Jabba’s underworld “family”. The thing that Boba wants to make clear though, is that unlike Jabba, he intends to rule out of respect for one another rather than fear like the Hutts had done in the past. He no longer wants to be known simply as a bounty hunter constantly moving from one job to the next with no real sense of home, like Din Djarin.
Morrison was cast in the prequel era during the filming of Episode II Attack of the Clones, where he portrayed Jango Fett; the “Mandalorian” bounty hunter all the clone troopers were made from. Jango fell to the hands of Mace Windu during the arena battle on Geonosis, but his son, an unaltered clone named Boba, took up his father’s profession carving himself a name through the galaxy.
In Episode VI The Return of the Jedi, Boba meets his “demise” at the hands of a blind Han Solo and a malfunctioning jet-pack. Boba was trying to kill Luke Skywalker when, because of Han, his jet-pack malfunctioned, throwing him into the Sarlaac pit where he was to be “digested for over 1,000 years” as C-3P0 explained. While it is still unclear as to how exactly Boba managed to get out of the pit, there were a few possible explanations from old Legends material: Dengar helped him, a runaway sand-crawler saved him, and he fought his way out himself.
The trailer gives little away in the terms of actual plot but we are shown some excellent jump cuts showcasing sweeping vistas, and a massive city on a desert planet. Given that Jabba’s palace was located on Tatooine it’s probably safe to assume that’s where the city is located, though its name is still a mystery. One of the standout factors of this trailer and series though is the use of practical make-up and prosthetics. Star Wars and Star Trek have both focused on their used of actual working prosthetics as opposed to CGI because of how more realistic it looks on screen. The Trandoshian members of the “family” look amazing as do many of the others like the Ithorian on the throne that Boba approaches. The B’omarr Monk (the Spider thing with the brain in the red goo at the beginning) is also a great callback to not only Legends but Return of the Jedi as well.
The first episode of The Book of Boba Fett airs on Disney+ on December 29, 2021.
Morbius
Okay, I will be the first one to admit that I had some SERIOUS reservations about this movie when it was announced as well as who they cast to play Dr. Michael Morbius. Since seeing the trailer though, I may have to eat my own words. Hoping to cash in on the success of Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Sony looks to be hoping to build themselves an entire inter-connected Spider-Man multiverse absent of the wall crawler himself.
Sony has taken quite a few liberties with the source material for the movie, but given how much they made him look comic accurate I’m hoping their story works out…
Morbius The Living Vampire first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 from October 1971, he was created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane.
His comic book origin is thus: Born and raised in Greece, Michael suffered from a rare blood condition which caused him difficulty walking, pale complexion, aversion to sunlight and a grotesque appearance, making him appear almost as a “pseudo-vampire”. Despite his physical limitations he studied hard and became one of the foremost experts in Animal/Human biology going as far as to win himself a Nobel Prize for his work. His countrymen didn’t take kindly to his condition and Michael was forced to flee Greece to avoid being killed for being a “vampire”. He moved to New York to try and come up with a cure for himself so that he could protect his fiancé from his “pseudo-vampirism”. He developed a serum using Vampire bat DNA and paired with an electroshock therapy to hopefully cure himself so he could return home to not only his fiancé, but his home country as well. Before he could administer his cure, he was stopped by a team-up of Spider-Man and the Lizard (Curt Connors) who wanted to stop Morbius from hurting anyone and because they hoped he would be able to cure their own conditions. *Spoiler but not really* he couldn’t. Morbius escaped from the team and administered his cure and therapy to himself. The therapy took to him and his already vampiric like nature, sending it into overdrive. His bones became hollow, he could fly, his canine teeth elongated, he gained super strength, echolocation, super speed, accelerated healing and unfortunately, a thirst for human blood. Refusing to believe that he had become a monster, instead believing he was “the next step in human evolution”, Michael resolved to turn everyone in the world into vampires like him, which set him on his path of villainy.
He sways between villain and hero for most of his comic career. He once joined The Midnight Sons with the likes of Ghost Rider and Brother Voodoo to combat the demon Lillith and her kin. He also registered under the Superhuman Registration Act during the Civil War arc to apprehend Blade for SHIELD.
The movie: Jared Leto was cast as Dr. Michael Morbius for this new movie and I will say it outright, not a fan. His turn as Joker in the Snyder-verse of DC comics movies has left a VERY sour taste in my mouth. I have nothing against him as an actor, I thought he was amazing in Dallas Buyers Club but I really hated the take he had on the Joker. My friend Malcolm and I agreed that he looked more like a Joker groupie/gang member than the Clown Prince of Crime himself. Moving past that though, it looks like Leto has found a role that suits his acting style and experience.
The movie seems to follow the comic origin quite closely just swapping his Greek heritage for American. He still looks to have the same degenerative blood disease, and it would appear there are thousands around the world suffering from it as well. It is a little unclear how he gets the vampirism, I’m sure it has something to do with the swarm of creepy bats high up in the mountains. Like the Boba Fett trailer this one doesn’t really give us much on the story, just that this ordinarily sick man becomes a vampire through a fringe medical procedure. I will say though, that the transformed Morbius does look almost exactly like his comic counterpart which is a huge win already. While I liked Venom, having a Venom origin without Spider-Man can work(see the movies) but it always feels like there’s something missing. Hopefully, they don’t have that problem with this one.
One thing I am very curious about is, what universe this movie takes place in. There’s Easter eggs all throughout the trailer to every single Spider-Man movie released by Sony to date. We are shown the wall graffiti showcasing Tobey McGuire Spider-Man, The Oscorp building logo is from Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man and then we see Michael Keaton reprising his role as Adrian Toomes/Vulture from the MCU Spider-Man trilogy. To top it all off, Tyrese Gibson’s character also confirms that this movie takes place in the same universe as Venom and its sequel when they mention “that thing in San Francisco”.
I am quite curious as to who exactly Matt Smith will play, but given his acting prowess and his penchant for villainous characters, I’m excited.
The Multiverse awaits…
The Multiverse 
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