Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, already has a record-breaking résumé.
He was the most-streamed artist globally on Spotify in both 2020 and 2021, currently has the highest grossing tour for any Latino artist, and will now be the first Latino to headline a live-action Marvel movie.
According to Variety, who first reported the news, Bad Bunny will be playing El Muerto in Sony Pictures' upcoming catalogue of films, which will include starring as the lead in the standalone film El Muerto. Previous Sony Marvel films include Spider-Man: No Way Home, Venom, and the most recent, Morbius.
Bad Bunny was brought out by Sony Motion Pictures Group president Sanford Panitch at CinemaCon in Vegas yesterday. “This opportunity to bring El Muerto to life, it’s amazing. It’s incredible,” Bad Bunny said during the panel, per IndieWire. “I love wrestling, I grew up watching wrestling, and now I’m a wrestler. … I think it’s the perfect role for me. It will be epic, I’m sure.”
For those who don't know, El Muerto is a wrestler who obtains superhuman strength and endurance from a mask that has been passed down through generations in his family.
He first appeared in the comics in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man No. 6 and actually wrestles Spider-Man and attempts to unmask him.
El Muerto is originally from Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, Mexico, but given that Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican, this may or may not shift where we see the character originate in the film adaptation.
Despite this difference, Bad Bunny is a wrestler at heart and has already appeared in multiple WWE matches over the years.
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This also wouldn't be his first acting role, given he appeared as Arturo "Kitty" Paez in Netflix's Narcos: Mexico in 2021, and he will appear in the upcoming star-studded film Bullet Train alongside Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock.
Reception of the news has been mixed so far, with some fans saying they'll give the movie a chance:
i will watch the bad bunny movie on opening night idc idc idc
An obscure character but there’s long been an interesting intersection between superheroes and Luchadores and this could be a cool approach, especially given that El Muerto is family mantle. As I’ve said before, get passionate people behind it and no character is off-limits. https://t.co/RA1rBTtSzq
Hey I just wanted to say that let’s be more open to the El Muerto movie. I like Bad Bunny as an artist, I respect his grind. Once the ball gets to moving on picking a writer, director, cast, suit etc I think people will have a change of heart.
bad bunny as el muerto is the best birthday present!!! i love him
While others are asking why it'll even exist to begin with when bigger characters like Miles Morales still don't have a live-action adaptation:
I like Bad Bunny but C’MON 💀 Sony make movies about characters we like not some Mf who appeared in two issues of an non-canon comic 😭
@IGN Bad bunny’s music is pretty good. But come on. There’s better Latino actors and hell even more iconic characters lol.
This is no disrespect to Bad Bunny - who must be as good in Bullet Train as ATJ who got Kraven off the same movie. This is an pretty much completely unknown Spider Man character getting their own movie yet again.
I am a huge fan of Spider-Man rogues gallery, I can name villains most people can't, and even I don't know who the fuck El Muerto is, and I'm Mexican.
I’m not a fan of the “nobody asked for this” argument because nobody asked for a lot of movies that ended up being pretty well-received but literally nobody asked for an El Muerto movie. He’s been in two comics. Two. Two issues.
I genuinely don’t know who’s making these creative decisions at Sony. Like with all the amazing alternate versions of Spider-Man we could be getting animated or live-action spinoff’s for how are we getting an ‘El Muerto’ movie?
The El Muerto film is set to be released on Jan. 12, 2024.
