It’s well-known that everyone involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe keeps more secrets than the CIA. Longtime actors like Samuel L. Jackson and Don Cheadle are very good at dodging and distraction when it comes to MCU questions. With his role in Morbius, Tyrese Gibson has now joined the ranks of the Marvel Spider-Man Universe, which is sort of MCU adjacent. In an interview with Complex, the actor/singer described how he went from fan to part of the team, and the media training involved in keeping all those secrets.
Morbius stars Oscar-winner Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a man who experiments on himself to cure his rare blood disorder and ends up as a vampire. Gibson is Simon Stroud, one of the FBI agents chasing Morbius. With the actor reportedly signing a three picture deal, we could be seeing more of his character, something Gibson is very excited about.
“I think they really set me up for the sequel. I could have easily gone above and beyond to really try and hurt Morbius. Because he did a couple of really bad things and hurting him or trying to get rid of him was justified,” he said. “But something in me didn’t want to hurt him, didn’t really want to take him out, because when I was in Afghanistan, he gave me some blood that saved my life while I was in the middle of the war. And so what did I look like hurting him when he stopped me from being hurt? So now I’m going to be in Morbius 2.”
With the MCU set to explore the multiverse, there’s every chance Agent Stroud could return in some other part of the franchise. However, the disappointing box office for Morbius makes it highly unlikely there will be a Morbius 2.
Leto is famous for being a method actor who stays in character at all times during production. Stories from his co-stars have ranged from frustrating to impressed, but Gibson was inspired by his experience working with the House of Gucci star. The “Sweet Lady” singer joked that “after seeing what I just seen, I’m not talking to nobody on my next movie.” However, he then got serious and compared it to playing against a great athlete.
“He was in his zone, man, and you just got to respect it. He’s not the first person I’ve ever worked with that’s a method actor, so I was prepared, but it just shows you like, ‘Yo, man, it’s game time,’” Gibson said. “I don’t think you get to talk to Kobe and Michael Jordan that often. They’re in their zone. You’re either going to come to practice or you’re going to be ready to dance. It’s time to dance. Or you’re going to just look at my greatness from the sideline.”
And as for that media training, the Baby Boy actor admits it was much more intensive than he expected. He didn’t want to end up trending like known spoilers Mark Ruffalo and Tom Holland.
“They had us sign like 15 pages of NDAs. We could not talk about anything. So let me just give you a sense of my media training around the confidentiality around Morbius,” he said. “Now, keep in mind. I was not allowed to be on set on the days that I wasn’t filming. We could not see anything. They trained me to deflect it and disown it and just get away from the questions. The lockdown levels was real. I was like, ‘Yo, man, this Marvel comics thing is serious.’”
Morbius is now playing in theaters.