Benito Martínez Ocasio—a.k.a. Bad Bunny—first ventured into acting with a role in Narcos: Mexico as Kitty. But the Puerto Rican artist has now gotten the role of a lifetime: he’ll star in his own Marvel movie from Sony Pictures as El Muerto.
This is a historic moment, as Martínez Ocasio is set to become the first Latino to lead a Marvel movie. It’s also the first time there is a live-action Marvel flick that focuses on a Latinx character. (Animated Oscar winner Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse was the first to feature a Latinx protagonist, introducing Miles Morales.)
The news was announced by the Sony Motion Pictures Group president Sanford Panitch and Martínez Ocasio himself at CinemaCon on Monday evening in Las Vegas, where the movie’s star made a surprise appearance during Sony’s panel, per Deadline and Variety. According to Variety, Martínez Ocasio said that “to bring El Muerto to life is just incredible… so exciting.”
It’s a fitting role for the musician, as he’s a huge wrestling fan and has wrestling experience, too. El Muerto—whose real name is Juan Carlos Sanchez—is a masked wrestler whose mask gives him supernatural strength and endurance. He was first introduced in the comics on Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Vol. 1 #6, where he faces off in the ring against Spider-Man for a charity match.
In that match, set up by J. Jonah Jameson, the loser was supposed to be unmasked and have his identity revealed. It was expected that El Muerto would win, but Spider-Man accidentally poisoned him with a stinger that shot out of his wrist. Spider-Man decided to take him to the hospital, and helped defeat El Muerto’s nemesis El Dorado while the wrestler recovered.
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El Muerto isn’t a well-known hero within the Marvel universe, but then again, it’s not like Morbius was widely known, either. And having one of the biggest trap star provide much-needed Latinx representation within the Marvel universe is a huge deal.
El Muerto is set to hit theaters on January 12, 2024.