Sony Announces ‘El Muerto’ Spider-Man Movie Starring Bad Bunny

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio "Bad Bunny." Photo courtesy of Facebook.

Sony unsurprisingly went Spider-heavy in its presentation at this year’s CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, announcing one brand new project and offering updates on others.

The biggest news was that Latin-Grammy winning and platinum-selling artist Bad Bunny – AKA Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – will be playing ‘Spider-Man’ character 'El Muerto' in a new movie.

El Muerto debuted in a 2006 issue of ‘Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’, written by Peter David, and illustrated by Roger Cruz. The character, real name Juan Carlos, was a super powered wrestler who originally fought Spider-Man in a charity wrestling match where he nearly unmasked the hero before being stung by Spider-Man, with a paralyzing poison. After being saved from the hospital by the web-spinner when Muerto’s oppressor El Dorado came to claim the wrestler’s life, the two would team up to defeat Dorado.

Whether that story will make it to screens remains to be seen – our guess would be more towards an origin story for El Muerto, and, given the recent run of Spider-adjacent films, it’s unlikely that the web-slinger will be present.

Bunny apparently pursued the chance to play the character, and this would be the first leading Latino superhero in the Sony Marvel movie universe. It’s another step for the studio following its first leading female character thanks to Dakota Johnson in ‘Madame Web’.

Photo courtesy of Marvel Entertainment.

The musician’s most recent role was in incoming action thriller ‘Bullet Train’ (more on that below), and Sony has apparently been impressed by his performance there, moving quickly to put ‘El Muerto’ into motion to accommodate his musical and promotional schedule.

In other tangential Spider-talk, Sony is planning more ‘Venom’ chaos, with a third film announced to bring back Tom Hardy’s shmuck journo/alien symbiote double-act.

On an entirely different arachnid front, ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ writer/producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller showed up to screen 15 (unfinished) minutes of the ‘Spider-Verse’ sequel (which was recently pushed back to 2023).

The first movie had 40 characters, and the sequel has 240. The first movie took place in one universe, and the sequel takes place in six universes (so far). They also mentioned that the second ‘Spider-Verse’ sequel is now known as ‘Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse’, itself due in 2024.

It wasn’t all Spider-news, though, as the studio recruited director David Leitch to show off the first reel of Brad Pitt-starring assassin thriller ‘Bullet Train’, which features Leitch’s trademark frenetic action mixed with a darkly comic side.

Brad Pitt in Sony Pictures' 'Bullet Train.'

Viola Davis took the stage to show the trailer for her new movie, ‘The Woman King’, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. The movie, written by the director and Dana Stevens, is an historical epic inspired by true events that took place in the Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The story follows Nanisca (Davis), general of the all-female military unit, and Nawi (‘The Underground Railroad's Thuso Mbedu), an ambitious recruit, who together fought enemies who violated their honor, enslaved their people and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for.

The likes of Lashana Lynch and John Boyega are in the cast for the movie, which will be out in the fall.

And, finally, a closing sizzle reel included mention of a new ‘Ghostbusters’ movie to follow Jason Reitman’s successful ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’.