David Dastmalchian Thinks He’d Nail the Marvel Role Jared Leto Couldn’t Crack
Ant-Man alum David Dastmalchian wants to sink his teeth into Morbius next, insisting he can resurrect Marvel’s Living Vampire after Jared Leto’s 2022 outing was slammed for weak writing, shaky VFX, and clunky post-credits scenes.
David Dastmalchian, the scene-stealer who somehow managed to play two different weirdos in the Ant-Man corner of the MCU, has his sights on something much bloodier: Morbius. Yes, that Morbius. And while that might sound like a bit, he is absolutely serious about jumping into Marvel's horror lane. On top of that, he pitched bringing both of his Ant-Man characters back for more mischief. Meanwhile, the Morbius movie itself is doing something truly odd on streaming. Let's unpack it.
He wants Morbius. For real.
Chatting with The Direct at a recent comic convention, Dastmalchian said he wants to play Dr. Michael Morbius, the Living Vampire. Quick inside baseball: Morbius lives at Sony, not Marvel Studios, which is why Jared Leto played him in Sony's 2022 movie. But in the multiverse era, those borders are more like speed bumps. Dastmalchian thinks the character fits right into his love for Marvel's weird, spooky side.
"I've always wanted to take a crack at Morbius, the living vampire. I would love the opportunity to play Dr. Michael Morbius... I've always been a fan of the horror and the weirder characters. Anybody from the West Coast Avengers would be fun for me to get to play around with."
He also shouted out Marvel's version of Dracula and the whole monsters-meet-heroes vibe, pointing at teams and books that play in that sandbox.
- Morbius, the Living Vampire
- Marvel's Dracula
- Midnight Suns
- Old-school Defenders monster arcs
- West Coast Avengers oddballs
Plus: bring back his Ant-Man duo
Dastmalchian already did double duty in the MCU: he was Kurt, the Russian hacker from the first two Ant-Man movies, and then he returned in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as Veb, the gooey translator who asks very personal questions about holes. He wants both back.
On Veb, he made a surprisingly logical pitch: if Marvel's new Fantastic Four are going to hop between universes and meet strange beings, someone has to handle the language barrier. Cue the slime.
"I think it makes no sense that the Fantastic Four are going to be traipsing around all the different universes... They need Veb to help interpret all the language barriers." He even joked he's "putting out the call right now" to make Veb "part of the Fantastic Five."
And Kurt? Put him to work at Avengers HQ.
"Kurt could fix all the computers at Avengers HQ. So that needs to happen."
Consider that an open application for the next Avengers thing... whatever it ends up being called.
Meanwhile, Morbius is somehow a Prime Video hit
Jared Leto's Morbius was torched by critics back in 2022 for its writing, wonky VFX, and head-scratching post-credits scenes. It earned $167.5 million worldwide at the box office, got memed into oblivion, and even flopped again when Sony re-released it to chase the joke. The Rotten Tomatoes score sits at 15%, and the IMDb rating is 5.1/10.
And yet, three years later, Morbius jumped to No. 5 on Prime Video's Top 10 movies in the U.S. during the first week of October, per ScreenRant. If nothing else, the curiosity factor is undefeated.
Would Dastmalchian fix Morbius?
He clearly gets the tone you need for Marvel's horror-adjacent characters, and he wants to play in that sandbox. Whether that means Sony hands him the fangs or Marvel steers him toward Dracula, Midnight Suns, or some West Coast weirdness... that part is the fun question.
If you want to revisit the receipts: Ant-Man movies are streaming on Disney+. Morbius is streaming on Prime Video in the U.S.