Jonás Cuarón Will Direct Marvel's El Muerto, Starring Bad Bunny
A superpowered Latino character is about to lead a Marvel film for the first time ever, and it'll be none other than the ultra-strong wrestler El Muerto. Sony Pictures is working on an El Muerto movie starring Grammy-winning rapper Bad Bunny, recently seen in "Bullet Train," and The Wrap reports that the film has found its director. Jonás Cuarón, son of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, will be at the helm on the upcoming project, while Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, who penned the script for DC's upcoming "Blue Beetle" film, is set to write the movie.
As a Sony production instead of a Marvel Studios film, this will be part of the continued expansion of the Spider-Man universe that is set to include upcoming offshoots "Madame Web" and "Kraven the Hunter." Sony's extended world that's built around the villains and side characters of Spider-Man comics so far includes two "Venom" films and this year's widely panned vampire flick "Morbius."
Here's El Muerto's history
The upcoming film, which The Wrap reports is simply titled "El Muerto," will likely continue the antihero trend, as the character is as well-known for taking on Spider-Man in a charity wrestling match gone wrong as for showing up as an ally to the web-slinger later on. However, his story on the page (filmmakers haven't confirmed plot details for the film) is actually pretty heroic in its own right.
The character first appeared in "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" in 2006, in an arc written by Peter David. El Muerto began as Juan-Carlos Sánchez, a man whose family tradition dictated he would one day become a wrestler granted powers by a mystical mask. When Sánchez refused to participate in the ritual of the mask, he ended up in a 10-year standoff with a villain called El Dorado.
Bad Bunny, also known as Benito A Martínez Ocasio, is primarily known for songs like "Mia" and "Soy Peor," but the Puerto Rican singer has recently appeared in both "F9" and "Bullet Train," cameoing in the former and playing the assassin The Wolf in the later. No other cast has yet been announced for "El Muerto," and the project is reportedly in early stages with Dunnet-Alcocer still developing the script. This will be the biggest project to date for Cuarón, who made his directorial debut in 2007 with "Year of the Nail" and has since directed, produced, and co-written the thriller "Desierto" and the still-unreleased Zorro story "Z."
Sony Pictures' "El Muerto" also not set a release date yet, so stay tuned.