While Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has yet to introduce its own version of Marvel’s Web-Slinger, it’s certainly not lacking for characters to highlight. We’ve already met Venom and Morbius, Kraven the Hunter is coming in early 2023 and Madame Web will hit the scene later that same year. Now word’s come in that rapper Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, a.k.a. Bad Bunny, will star in his own Marvel movie set within the SSSU that’s coming in early 2024.
This revelation comes straight CinemaCon, where Sony Motion Pictures Group president Sanford Panitch announced that Bad Bunny will play El Muerto, who was introduced to the Marvel Comics Universe in 2006’s Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #6. The El Muerto movie will hit theaters on January 12, 2024, and assuming Sony’s Spider-Man Universe doesn’t deliver any movies between it and Madame Web, that’ll make El Muerto the sixth entry in this franchise. This will also be the first Latino character to lead a Marvel movie, whereas, Jaime Reyes, a.k.a. Blue Beetle, will have that honor for a DC movie come summer 2023.
While the Grammy Award-winning Bad Bunny is primarily known for belting out tunes like “I Like It” and “Mia,” he does have some acting experience under his belt already. Along with briefly appearing in F9 and recurring in Narcos: Mexico as Arturo “Kitty” Páez, he also joined Brad Pitt in the Bullet Train cast and is starring opposite Camila Mendes and O’Shea Jackson Jr. in American Sole. Plus, Bad Bunny has done some wrestling for WWE (he debuted at WrestleMania 37), so he knows his way around action and can put those skills to good use in El Muerto.
In the comics, El Muerto started off as Juan-Carlos Sanchez, who was trained his entire life by his father to one day take on the El Muerto mantle, i.e. become a masked wrestler granted incredible powers by the mystical masks they wore. But Juan-Carlos didn’t want this mantle and refused to fight El Dorado as part of the ritual, so when his adversary tried to him him, Juan-Carlos’ father sacrificed his life to try to stop El Dorado. This noble effort granted Juan-Carlos 10 more years to train, and at the end of that period, he would have to defeat and unmask a masked hero. When the time was up Juan-Carlos chose Spider-Man as his target, and while the initial battle didn’t go the way he wanted it to, eventually Spidey and the now-El Muerto teamed up to take down El Dorado.
It’s probably safe to assume that the El Muerto movie will follow in the footsteps of Venom, Morbius and its other Sony’s Spider-Man Universe predecessors by not having Spidey involved in the title character’s origin story. And as arguably the least well-known character within the lineup of characters confirmed to be getting their own movies in this franchise, the filmmakers that end up boarding El Muerto will likely have a lot of flexibility with adapting the source material. For Bad Bunny, this project offers the opportunity for him further boost his Hollywood profile.
As soon as more concrete details on the El Muerto movie come in, CinemaBlend will pass them along. Until then, there are plenty of 2022 movie releases to keep you entertained in the coming months.
