Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known by his stage name Bad Bunny, has been chosen as the new Marvel hero in Sony Pictures’ superhero lineup, and will star in the indie comic book “El Muerto.”
“El Muerto” will be released in theaters on January 12, 2024.
Presented by Sony Motion Pictures Group President Sanford Banitch at CinemaCon, the annual gathering of movie theater owners in Las Vegas, Ocasio will be the first Latin actor to headline a live Marvel movie.
“Bringing El Muerto to life is amazing… very exciting,” the chart-topping rapper told the crowd, adding that he grew up a fan of wrestling.
Known as Juan-Carlos Estrada Sánchez in the comics, El Muerto is a gladiator whose power is transmitted through his ancestors in the form of a mask (which, according to the official Marvel website, gives him superhuman strength). In previous comics, The Dead Man entered the ring with Spider-Man himself. On stage at CinemaCon, Sony executives suggested that Ocasio play a counter-hero who is about to inherit his father’s power.
Sony’s Marvel adaptation has spawned three iterations of Spider-Man over the course of 20 years, with the current series recently directed by Tom Holland being a huge hit in “Spider-Man: No Way Home”. Other franchises include Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams’ Venom and Jared Leto’s Morbius and the Academy Award-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. A sequel to the latter just moved from the December 2022 release to the June 2023 release.
Upcoming Sony Marvel projects include: the much-anticipated “Madame Web,” an all-female adventure starring Dakota Johnson, which opens in theaters July 7, 2023; The upcoming “Kraven the Hunter” movie is directed by “Nocturnal Animals” star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, which hits theaters on January 13, 2023.
