Jared Leto Will Play a Vampire In Spider Man Spin-Off 'Morbius'

Jared Leto is clearly keen to add some more Factor 50-craving villains to his IMDB page. Not only is he reprising his role as the Joker, but now he's set to star as a vampire in a Spider-Man spin-off.

According to Variety, Leto will play the titular character Morbius in a film which, similar to Tom Hardy's forthcoming Venom, will feature a Spider-Man villain but no Spider-Man.

Variety reports that, "Leto has been loosely attached to the project for some time, but wouldn’t fully commit until he knew the film was headed in the right direction. He asked to meet with several of the filmmakers who were up for the job. Espinosa met with Leto last month in Germany while Leto was touring with his band Thirty Seconds to Mars, which eventually led to him nabbing the job."

They add that, "Morbius was created in 1971 by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane for “The Amazing Spider-Man #101.” The character was a scientist who tried to cure himself of a blood disease, with tragic results. He became afflicted with vampiric traits such as fangs and a thirst for blood—and wound up battling Spider-Man."

There's no confirmed release date but, "the movie will likely be slated soon as production is expected to start sometime this year".

Enough time for Leto to squeeze in some disturbing and much publicized method acting, then.

This story originally appeared on Esquire.co.uk.

* Minor edits have been made by the Esquiremag.ph editors.