Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known by his stage name Bad Bunny, has been cast as the newest Marvel hero in Sony Pictures’ superfigure portfolio – and will direct the standalone comic book film El Muerto.
“El Muerto” is scheduled to hit theaters on January 12, 2024.
Ocasio was introduced by Sony Motion Pictures Group President Sanford Panitch at CinemaCon, the annual gathering of movie theater owners in Las Vegas.
“Bringing El Muerto to life is just amazing… so exciting,” the chart-topping rapper told the crowd, adding that he grew up a wrestling fan.
El Muerto, known as Juan-Carlos Estrada Sanchez in the comics, is a wrestler whose powers are passed down from lineage in the form of a mask (which, according to Marvel’s official site, gives him superhuman strength). In previous comic tales, El Muerto has entered the ring with Spider-Man himself. On the CinemaCon stage, Sony Brass suggested that Ocasio will portray an anti-hero about to take over his father’s power.
Sony’s adaptive Marvel rights have spawned three Spider-Man iterations in 20 years, with the current series, helmed by Tom Holland, most recently finding huge success in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Other franchises include Venom by Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams, Jared Leto’s Morbius and the Oscar-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. A sequel to the latter has just been pushed back to June 2023 from a December 2022 release.
Upcoming Sony Marvel projects include: the anticipated Madame Web, a female-led adventure starring Dakota Johnson, due in theaters July 7, 2023; and the upcoming Kraven the Hunter, directed by Nocturnal Animals star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, which hits theaters on January 13, 2023.
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