To further expand and diversify its universe of Marvel characters, Sony has announced that an El Muerto film starring Latin Grammy-winning and platinum-selling recording artist Bad Bunny is in development. The news broke from Cinemacon during Sony’s panel, where Bad Bunny made a surprise appearance.
The character of El Muerto aka Juan Carlos was a super-powered wrestler who originally fought Spider-Man in a charity wrestling match in which he nearly unmasked the Webslinger before being stabbed by Spider-Man with a paralyzing venom. After his oppressor El Dorado came to claim his life, he was rescued by Spider-Man and the two team up to defeat Dorado.
El Muerto would be the first Latin American superhero to get his own movie in the Marvel Characters universe, right after Sony recently dated Madame Web, which was the first female character from the Spider-Man universe to get her own movie .
While El Muerto isn’t as popular as Venom or Kraven the Hunter, Sony’s rush to get this film into development had a lot to do with Bad Bunny’s persistence in finding the right superhero property for herself. The superstar is set to make his big studio debut on July 29 in the highly anticipated action picture Bullet Train, a project dear to Sony that has already led to Aaron Taylor-Johnson starring in ‘ Kraven the Hunter” has taken over. The same situation seems to have happened with Bad Bunny, with the executives being extremely high in the film’s final Bad Bunny footage.
After recent meetings to find a vehicle for him to play the leading role in, the multi-hyphenate took matters into his own hands and began searching the Spider-Man library for Latin characters that would suit him, eventually coming across El Muerto. The studio was excited about the idea and hopes the project will move quickly given Bad Bunny’s busy touring and acting schedule.
In addition to Bullet Train, he recently appeared in Narcos: Mexico and co-edited Cassandro with Gael García Bernal. He also recently finished his arena tour El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo.
He is represented by UTA and Rimas Entertainment.
Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group president Sanford Panitch, who introduced Bad Bunny onstage tonight, said El Muerto will be released on January 12, 2024.
Benito Antonio Marinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, told Panitch that working on Bullet Train was “an amazing experience. David (Leitch) is great. I loved working with him on my first film and now with this opportunity to bring El Muerto to life. It’s amazing, it’s incredible. i love wrestling I grew up wrestling and I’m a wrestler. I’m a former champion so I love this character. I think it’s the perfect role for me and it’s going to be epic.”