Sony are seemingly on a roll with its Marvel Spider-Man properties with the huge successes of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Now the studio wants to continue expanding its Marvel Universe.
On Monday evening, Sony kicked off CinemaCon and used the opportunity to present a reel of films cinema owners should look forward to, including concept art of the Dakota Johnson-led Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter, which is currently shooting and starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
The studio confirmed Venom 3 is in development. Yet, the biggest and most surprising announcement was award-winning musician Bad Bunny (real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) will be the lead of an El Muerto movie.
Like everyone else around the world, I didn’t even know this character existed before waking up this morning, but after reading up about him (via Empire), it seems like a cool character to bring onto the big screen.
The basic gest of El Muerto is he debuted in a 2006 issue of the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man comic, written by Peter David and illustrated by Roger Cruz. The character’s real name is Juan Carlos, and he’s a super-powered wrestler who wrestled Spider-Man for charity and nearly unmasked him before the web-slinger stung him with a paralyzing poison.
He was saved by the hero when Muerto’s oppressor El Dorado came to take the wrestler’s life leading the two of them teaming up to defeat Dorado.
Even though I know the square root of jack-shit about the character, I can see why the studio would be interested. He seems like a cool character and backstory and can play within the world of the iconic Luchador and Lucha Libre culture.
Sony wants to move quickly on this to accommodate the rapper’s hectic schedule. According to Empire, the Puerto Rican got the role because he impressed the studio execs with his role in Bullet Train and pushed for the role.
As well as being another step in the Sony Marvel Universe, it will be an important role as it’ll be the first Latino-led superhero in a Sony Marvel movie.
Until I see Bullet Train (which got a lot of praise following its first 15 minutes shown as the Con), I have to assume the only reason Bunny got the role over an actor is because he is incredibly popular in South America and around the world and not his acting ability.
Then again, I was wrong about him last year when he showed up at Wrestlemania and had one of the best matches on the whole weekend card.
The only other worry is that the project does not have a director or writer attached yet.
The Bear Cave 