Popular Latin music star Bad Bunny will be taking on the role of El Muerto in a Sony film focused on the Marvel Comics character.
Sony made the announcement during movie theater industry trade show CinemaCon, where Bad Bunny surprised the audience by appearing on stage. Talking to Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group President Sanford Panitch, Bad Bunny said he was excited to be playing a character that incorporated his love of wrestling.
“It’s amazing, it’s incredible. I love wrestling. I grew up watching wrestling and I’m a wrestler. I’m a former champion so this is why I love this character. I think it’s the perfect role to me and it will be epic.”
Bad Bunny (@sanbenito) takes the #CinemaCon stage to announce his starring role as El Muerto during @SonyPictures’ Presentation. @ElMuertoMovie is exclusively in movie theaters January 12, 2024. pic.twitter.com/jMhBId2CT7
— Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) April 26, 2022
El Muerto is the hero mantle bestowed to Juan-Carlos Estrada Sanchez in Marvel Comics. Coming from a long line of wrestlers, Juan-Carlos is trained by his father to be the next El Muerto, a wrestler who dons a mystical mask that grants power, including superhuman strength and endurance. The comics saw El Muerto fight Spider-Man in a charity wrestling match, but faced defeat when Spidey inadvertently poisoned him with a stinger. The villainous El Dorado comes to kill him but Spider-Man intervenes, and Spidey and El Muerto team up to take him down.
Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio MartÃnez Ocasio, has had a recent run as a wrestler in WWE, making his first appearance during the Royal Rumble in January 2021 and going on to appear on Monday Night Raw and receiving professional training at WWE facilities in Florida. Fellow Puerto Rican wrestler Damian Priest helped Bad Bunny win the WWE 24/7 Championship, a title he held for 28 days until he relinquished it to R-Truth in exchange for Stone Cold Steve Austin memorabilia.
On the acting front, Bad Bunny’s credits include Fast & Furious 9; a four-episode appearance on the third season of Netflix series Narcos: Mexico; and the upcoming star-studded action film Bullet Train, led by Brad Pitt. Deadline reports that it’s Bad Bunny’s work in the latter Sony film that has the studio keen to give him more. Bad Bunny has been working with Sony to find the right superhero property to tackle.
El Muerto marks yet another title in Sony’s ever-expanding Spider-Verse. The studio also has Kraven the Hunter, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the lead role; Madame Web, starring Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney; and Venom 3., which was also confirmed at CinemaCon.
Sony has given El Muerto a U.S. release date of January 12, 2024.
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