New hero for Sony’s Spider-Verse: Bad Bunny becomes super wrestler El Muerto

• Sony’s own little Marvel universe gets muscular reinforcements.
• Wrestler El Muerto, a fringe figure from the world of Spider-Man, is getting his own movie.
• Successful singer and rapper Bad Bunny will star.

In the early 2000s, Marvel heroes were still in the program of many different film studios, now there is only Disney with the gigantic Marvel Cinematic Universe and Sony. Sony owns a small but crucial piece of the Marvel pie, namely the film rights to the Spider-Man universe.

While Sony and Marvel are working together to allow Spidey to swing around in the MCU as well, Sony also wants to produce Marvel movies separate from Disney. In addition to the animated “Spider-Verse” films that exist apart from the MCU, Sony has focused primarily on building its own film universe in recent years. It is about villains and minor characters from the world of Spider-Man, with Spider-Man himself never appearing.

“Venom” was a successful start and the sequel “Venom: Let there be Carnage” was able to bring in enough money to justify a third “Venom” film. “Morbius,” starring Jared Leto as the vampire anti-hero, recently took a hit at the box office, and currently filming is underway for “Kraven the Hunter,” about an evil big game hunter who would love to have Spider-Man’s head in his trophy cabinet.

In addition to “Madame Web” with Dakota Johnson, another film has now been announced at the CinemaCon in Las Vegas that probably nobody expected. “El Muerto” is about the super-powered wrestler of the same name, who has only appeared in two “Spider-Man” comics from 2006, in which he briefly fought Spider-Man.

Juan-Carlos Estrada Sánchez, El Muerto’s real name, is actually a hero. As a youngster, he was supposed to inherit the wrestling mask that gives him his powers from his father, just as he inherited the mask from his father. But in order to prove himself worthy, Juan-Carlos must first defeat the evil El Dorado, as is the custom.

However, Juan-Carlos is scared and refuses to fight. El Dorado then wants to kill him, but Juan-Carlos’ father intervenes and is killed in Juan-Carlos’ place. El Dorado then allows Juan-Carlos to train for 10 years, travel the world and find his courage.

Then Juan-Carlos should find a masked hero and publicly humiliate and unmask him, only then can he prove himself worthy of the mask. So El Muerto gets in the ring with Spider-Man, but in the end both set off to defeat El Dorado together.

Since the entire story of El Muerto can be summarized in three paragraphs, Sony naturally has a free pass here story-wise. At the same time, it’s the ultimate test of the assumption that any film will find its audience as long as the word “Marvel” is emblazoned over the title. In any case, El Muerto does not have a fan base.

With Bad Bunny, which is currently storming the charts internationally, cinema tickets can certainly be sold. As a huge wrestling fan, Bad Bunny is excited to star in El Muerto.

At the earliest in winter 2023, but probably not until 2024, we will find out whether “El Muerto” can convince the audience or whether Sony’s wondrous plans for their own Spidey universe will not work out. A movie about the Sinister Six, Spider-Man’s villain squad, might be a better idea after all.