Bad Bunny is about to become Marvel’s first Latino star

Rapper/singer Bad Bunny is set to star in an El Muerto spinoff film from the Spiderman universe, making him Marvel’s first Latino live-action main character. “To bring El Muerto to life is just incredible... so exciting,” the artist said of the role in an announcement at CinemaCon this week. The film, produced by Sony Pictures, is set to release in January 2024.

In the El Muerto comics, a wrestler named Juan-Carlos Estrada Sanchez gets his powers from his lucha libre mask, which he has to earn by fighting a character named El Dorado. When Sanchez is unable to defeat El Dorado, his father sacrifices himself to save his son. The film will likely pick up on this anti-hero narrative of Sanchez avenging his father’s death and becoming El Muerto in the ultimate battle ten years later against El Dorado. The comics also see El Muerto wrestling Spider-Man, even nearly unmasking the web-slinger before Spider-Man paralyzed him with poison.

The role is fitting for Bad Bunny — along with being Spotify’s most-played artist in both 2020 and 2021, he made his impressive pro wrestling debut at WWE’s WrestleMania and Royal Rumble. He’s also getting in his acting credits: he appeared in F9: The Fast Saga and the Netflix series Narcos, and he’s also set to co-star in this summer’s Bullet Train alongside Brad Pitt, Michael Shannon, Joey King, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, and Zazie Beetz.

Per Deadline, Bad Bunny (neé Benito Antonio Marinez Ocasio) told Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group President Sanford Panitch that he’s excited to harness his history in the ring to his new role. “It’s amazing, it’s incredible. I love wrestling. I grew up watching wrestling and I’m a wrestler,” he said. “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.”