What Morbius End-Credits Scenes Mean for Spider-Man’s Future

Spoilers Morbius Spider-Man has no way home

The scene at the end of credits MorbiusPerhaps the most confused post-credits scene in a superhero movie is this one. The characters are jumping between multiple universes. Bad guys become villains. There’s a lot to unpack.

It is the movie’s origin story about Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto). To understand the conference he has with Vulture (Michael Keaton), a comic book villain, at the end, it is necessary to know the current status of Spider-Man and Venom (Tom Hardy) as well as which studios have the rights to what Marvel characters.

Though Tom Holland’s Spider-Man recently fought alongside Marvel Cinematic Universe character Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in last year’s Spider-Man has no way home, all those Spidey villains I just listed—Morbius, Venom, and now Vulture—live in different, burgeoning cinematic universe, clunkily but officially titled the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters. As of now it’s a small cinematic universe made up of just two VenomFilms and Now Morbius. But it’s growing: Another Spidey villain, Kraven the Hunter, is set to make his big screen debut next year.

Why is there so many universes. Sony is currently disentangling the Disney-owned MCU’s most famous character (which may be why). Spider-Man has no way homeThe Spider-Man movie effectively ended the story. Presumably, at some point, Holland’s Peter Parker (or another, recast version of the character) will make his way to Morbius world so the webslinger and vampire can face off in a clash of creepy creatures.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Morbius end-credits scenes, Sony’s universe of Spidey characters, and what’s next for Peter Parker.

What’s up with Sony’s cinematic universe?

It’s tough to remember, now that we’re in a moment of obsessing over Andrew Garfield, but the Spider-Man movies he starred in from the early 2010s were not good. Sony and Marvel Studios made a deal to collaborate on three new Spider-Man movies featuring Tom Holland after those films failed at the box-office. Homecoming (2017), Far away from home (2019), You can’t go home! (2021). Marvel Studios might also be able to borrow Holland from time-to-time for MCU collaboration movies like Civil War: Captain America, Avengers: Infinity WarAnd Avengers: Endgame.

It looked for a while like Sony would rely solely on Marvel Studios to produce profitable Spidey content. In 2018, Sony produced an animated movie that won the Oscar. Spider-Man: In the Spiderverse. The movie presented the multiverse concept to an audience. It featured several Spider-beings representing different worlds. Sony used the same multiverse concept in its live-action Spider-Man film. It was so successful that it decided to adapt it. You can’t go home!It was unfortunate that all three of the Spider-Men were played by white actors instead of an array of diverse actors.

Success is a result of Spider-verseSony had no doubt that the Spider-Man was alive and well and they were able to create an entire world around him. So You can’t go home!Another corporate mandate was to extricate Spider-Man form the MCU.

Continue reading: Why We’ll Never Stop Getting New Spider-Man Movies

What year was the last time we saw Spider-Man in action?

Last we saw Holland’s Peter Parker, he was teaming up with two other Spider-Men to fight a cohort of villains in Spider-Man has no way home. The film’s previous version. Far away from home, the villain Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) revealed Spider-Man’s secret identity to the entire world. The revelation turns Peter’s life upside down and Spider-Man’s antics bar his friends from getting accepted at M.I.T. Doctor Strange is asked by Peter to remind the universe that Spider-Man is Spider-Man. (It’s not true, but the film never stops trying to figure out why Peter and his friends thought they were guaranteed a seat at M.I.T.

Peter screws up Doctor Strange’s spell. Many villains from different universes know Peter Parker is Spider-Man and suddenly flood into the timelines. You can’t go home!. Eventually Garfield and Maguire’s Spider-Men show up, too. Together, the three Spider-Men attempt to heal the criminals from the many mental or physical ailments that drove them mad before they send them back home. Garfield is able to catch Zendaya as she tumbles off of the Statue of Liberty. The internet explodes.

The multiverse remains open to other evil guys and it is not closed. The only way to stop the flood is for Doctor Strange to cast a spell so everyone forgets who Peter Parker is—including Peter’s girlfriend (Zendaya, the reason you probably bought a ticket to the movie). No one knows Peter at the end. After moving into an empty apartment, he buys his GED textbook and begins crimefighting. He will be missed if he leaves the MCU.

What happens when Morbius?

Milo (Matt Smith) and Dr. Michael Morbius were both born with an uncommon, vague form of a blood disorder. Morbius will try anything to correct it. He mixes bat DNA with humans and uses himself as aguinea pig. This is disastrous. Morbius quickly becomes a vampire, and then kills many mercenaries in order to get their blood. But he’s a good guy, so he decides he needs to control his lust for humans. Luckily, he’s also invented an artificial form of blood that’s blue, and drinking that down like a marathoner desperate for water sustains him for a bit. Its effects diminish day-to-day, however. Morbius knows that to survive, he will eventually need to consume human blood. The film immediately abandons this moral dilemma, and does not return to it. Do you think he has ever had to have human blood? We don’t know. Are they slowly making him a bad person? Everyone doesn’t care.

Meanwhile, Morbius’ buddy Milo injects himself with the vampiric formula without Morbius’ knowledge. He becomes a vampire and is also transformed. Feeling good about yourself. The only part that is fun in the movie is when Milo moves before a mirror to show off his muscles. He then goes to Wall Street to get the blood of bankers. It’s all very Buffy. Al Madrigal (and Tyrese Gilbert) chase Morbius and take him into custody. They tell him that while it’s fine he killed a bunch of mercenaries on a boat (it is?!), but it’s not cool that he’s now killing New York citizens. Oh, and briefly the cops allude to a murderous “incident” in San Francisco. We now know Venom is part of the same universe as Morbius. This will become important in the future.

Morbius escapes from prison in order to put an end to Milo’s killing spree. Milo kills Morbius’ mentor (a criminally underused Jared Harris) and Morbius’ co-worker/girlfriend Martine (Adria Arjona). Morbius is forced to suck Martine’s blood to survive. Milo and Morbius fight. Morbius kills Milo. Martine, who is now a vampire, wakes up as expected.

A short sidebar: Both Venom and Morbius are “good guys” in their movie runs. Their mission is to stop their blood sugar from rising, defend the innocent and find other vampires or aliens using the same power for evil. Why superhero movies can’t just make movies about villains in which the villains are actually villainous is unclear, but it feels like this will be a problem when they pit Morbius and Venom against Spidey later. Based on You can’t go home!Sony just thinks that bad guys can be good people who have had bad things happen to them. Like, falling into a vat of eels like Electro or screwing up an experiment on oneself like…every other Spider-Man villain. Therefore, Spidey will likely spend his entire time creating scientific remedies for the ailments of these creatures instead of fighting them. Sounds exhausting.

How does the Morbius end-credits scenes?

The villain is seen in the second scene after the credits. Spider-Man’s Homecoming, Vulture (Michael Keaton) finds himself transported from a jail cell in the MCU (where Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has been fighting crime) to a cell in Morbius’ universe. Adrian Toomes is Vulture, but he says that the prison has been better than the previous. Given his lifestyle, you would expect him to be unhappy about being transferred to another universe. HomecomingHis love for his family was evident. But he doesn’t seem too bummed about being separated from his daughter forever. Because the jailers in Morbius’ universe have no record of an Adrien Toomes in their jail, they set him free.

Second scene: Morbius takes Vulture to his field, in which he meets him. Vulture, whose suit has gotten fancier since we last saw it, tells Morbius, “Thanks for meeting me, Doc. I’ve been reading about you. I don’t know how I got here … something to do with Spider-Man. I’m thinking of putting a team together. Do some good.”

Morbius simply replies, “Intriguing.”

The exchange strongly suggests the formation of the Sinister Six, a criminal group.

Morbius is so passionate about Spider-Man. Is Spider-Man actually a real thing?

No, as far as we know, Spider-Man does not exist in Morbius’ universe. So Morbius should probably be asking Vulture a lot of followup questions like, “Who is Spider-Man?” and, “Why do I care about him?”

Morbius was the main character of the film up to this point. He defeated the evil vampire. He refused to drink human blood. It is not clear why he would join the supervillains.

I wonder how Vulture ended up in the Morbius/Venom universe.

The final battle saw the multiverse crack open in Spider-Man has no way homeVulture was apparently zapped by the MCU Universe to the Sony Universe. Why? No explanation. Has anyone else in the MCU been transported to another universe? None that we are aware of. You can call it corporate mandate magic.

Wasn’t Vulture cool with Spider-Man at the end of Homecoming though?

Yeah, Vulture didn’t seem That Spider-Man is mad for putting him in jail after the conclusion of Homecoming. Spider-Man saved Vulture’s life. The movie’s end credits scene (have you had enough of ending credit scenes? Mac Gargan (a.k.a. Scorpion) approached Adrien Toomes in prison to ask about Spider-Man’s true identity. Toomes stated that he had no idea who Spider-Man is. It’s unclear if Adrien was trying to protect Peter or just wanted to kill Peter himself when he got out of prison.

Wait, I’m so confused, what universe is Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in?

He’s still in the MCU. After Doctor Strange cast a spell so that everyone would forget who Peter Parker was, everyone in the MCU forgot his identity, but Spider-Man didn’t get zapped to a parallel universe. Spider-Man will have to travel across the multiverse in order to defeat Venom, Morbius and the Vulture.

It’s possible that a Different Spider-Man does exists in Sony’s universe. The role could be recast and a new Spider-Man might fight all of these villains. After all, Holland has said he’s unsure whether he’ll play the webslinger again. A switch up like this would need more plot tricks. For example, why would Vulture fight another Spidey with which he is not in agreement? But that’s a problem for another movie.

Sony might finally take advantage of this chance Finally feature Miles Morales’ Spider-Man in one of its live action movies instead of casting a fourth Peter Parker. Remember, Miles Morales was the headliner Into the Spider-VerseThis is arguably the greatest Spider-Man movie ever made.

What’s the deal with this Sinister Six team I keep hearing about?

Many times, in Spider-Man comics, and also the new Spider-Man game, Spidey villains team up to fight the webslinger. These Spidey heroes are called the Sinister Six, or sometimes the Sinister Seven, depending on their numbers. Sony appears to have just the right team.

It will probably include Venom and Vulture as well Kraven the Hunter and Morbius. Scorpion could also be removed from the MCU and put into the Sony universe. And maybe there’s a parallel universe version of the now-dead Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) who could show up.

Will Spider-Man’s Spider-Man return to Tom Holland? If so, how and when will he return as Spider-Man?

It’s very unclear. Tom Holland says he hasn’t decided yet. Longtime Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal said, “If I have my way, he will.”

Send an email to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com.