Bad Bunny is getting into the Spider-Verse ring as wrestler Juan-Carlos Sanchez in Sony’s El Muerto. Sony Pictures surprise announced the chart-topping rapper and WWE aficionado would play the lesser-known Marvel Comics character as part of its Sony’s Spider-Man Universe at CinemaCon, billing Bad Bunny’s super-powered luchador as Marvel’s first Latino lead of a live-action film. In a new interview promoting his latest album Un Verano Sin Ti, Bad Bunny said “people are gonna be proud” when El Muerto hits the mat on January 12, 2024.
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“It’s crazy. It’s something that I can’t believe it yet. I’m very happy about this character, about this opportunity to be the first Latin [lead],” the Bullet Train actor said on New Music Daily Radio with Zane Lowe. “It’s not about I’m gonna be the first Latino making a role, it’s gonna be about the first Latino main character, is the important thing.”
“So it’s something huge, and it will be epic,” Bad Bunny added. “I know that people are gonna be proud of my work.”
Introduced in 2006’s Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #6, Juan-Carlos Sanchez is the latest in a long line of wrestlers trained to wear the mystical mask of El Muerto, destined to square off with the mystical wrestling god El Dorado. Ten years after his father’s death, Juan-Carlos must defeat and publicly unmask a champion of the people — or forfeit his own life to the vengeful luchador. As El Muerto, Juan-Carlos duels Spider-Man at a charity event funded by J. Jonah Jameson, but later teams up with the wrestling wall-crawler to defeat the supernatural El Dorado and spare his life.
“It’s amazing. it’s incredible. I love wrestling. I grew up watching it and now I’m a wrestler,” Bad Bunny said during Sony’s announcement at CinemaCon in April. “This is why I love this character. I think it’s the perfect role [for] me. It will be epic.”
The Venom and Morbius studio has also dated Kraven the Hunter, starring Bad Bunny’s Bullet Train co-star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, for January 13, 2023, and the Dakota Johnson-starring Madame Web for July 7, 2023. El Muerto is scheduled to open in theaters on January 12, 2024.
