Michael Keaton didn’t know anyone else in his Morbius cameo

Legendary actor Michael Keaton spoke on the Happy Sad Confused podcast about his Morbius cameo, revealing he didn’t know the characters or understand the direction the story was taking.

It’s been a great couple of years to love Michael Keaton’s comic book work. The storied actor was a highlight of Spider-Man: Homecoming as the sinister Vulture. Then he returned to his most iconic role, Batman, for an extended appearance in The Flash.

But between those two was something a little more dubious. Keaton’s Vulture returned for a cameo in Morbius, one of 2022’s biggest box-office bombs.

The cameo is already a point of contention for fans, as it didn’t make a ton of sense in context. Now, Keaton has confirmed in an interview that he didn’t necessarily understand it himself.

Michael Keaton’s Morbius cameo had no real explanation

Appearing on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Keaton revealed the process for filming his Morbius cameo involved a lot of guess work. In fact, no one really seemed to know what was going on.

“Even they couldn’t quite explain it,” Keaton explains. “He said, ‘Look, let me just kind of tell you,’ and I go, okay, I really don’t quite know what you’re talking about or even who some of these people are.”

(Discussion starts at 33:42)

As Keaton explained, many of the problems were related to the film’s attempt to plan a wider universe. Morbius is part of the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters (SPUMC), which includes Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Madame Web, and the upcoming Kraven the Hunter and Venom 3.

“It was complicated because they were obviously looking down the road. They said, ‘Here’s how this is gonna work, this is what’s gonna happen here,’ and I go, okay, I’m in! Let’s just try it!”

Keaton’s cameo as the Vulture was a highlight of early Morbius trailers but was allegedly cut heavily in post-production. While it was originally believed Keaton’s appearance was an attempt to place Morbius in the MCU, it was fallout from Spider-Man: No Way Home, with Vulture being teleported to the same earth as SPUMC’s Morbius.

Keaton did praise Morbius star Jared Leto, though, saying, “He’s such an interesting dude. Toward the end, when he finally talked to me, and I told the guy, the minute I showed up, oh, I get what he’s doing, I’m gonna steer clear.”

The cameo is remarkably brief, consisting of Vulture arriving on the Earth, finding or making a version of his gear, and confronting Morbius with a vague hint he’s on the Earth because of Spider-Man before suggesting a team-up.

Unfortunately, the cameo wasn’t enough to save Morbius, which suffered a catastrophically low box office (though it’s now been surpassed in that regard) and became one of the biggest memes of 2022.

Keaton will next be seen in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, a sequel to the 1988 classic horror-comedy.