It was just announced that Sony is moving forward with Tom Hardy‘s “Venom 3” as the studio continues to flesh out their spinoff universe featuring “Spider-Man” villains and cohorts. The Sony-Verse is now looking to add even more obscure comic book characters than they have previously, which is quite the feat.
Deadline has revealed that rapper Bad Bunny, coming off a small role in the upcoming Brad Pitt actioner “Bullet Train,” has landed the lead role of Juan Carlos in “El Muerto.” The new Marvel Comics spinoff film focuses on a superpowered wrestler ally of Spidey, who hasn’t appeared much even on the comics side, giving the studio essentially a blank slate to work with.
The announcement was made at Sony’s CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas.
“It’s amazing, it’s incredible. I love wrestling. I grew up watching wrestling and I’m a wrestler. I’m a former champion so this is why I love this character. I think it’s the perfect role to me and it will be epic,” Bad Bunny expressed his excitement to the CinemaCon crowd about the Marvel movie.
Bunny, aka, Benito Antonio Marinez Ocasio (“Narcos: Mexico“) is said to have met with Sony about playing a Latino character in the Sony-Verse and is seemingly the reason El Muerto was selected.
It’s worth noting that “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” actor Michael Mando plays a Latino incarnation of the villain The Scorpion in “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” Perhaps, Sony pulls Mando off the bench and allows the Scorpion to have a bigger role in something like “El Muerto” as he really didn’t get much play in the two Spidey sequels after a solid setup in the first film.
“El Muerto” already has a release date of Jan. 12, 2024, giving the impression production could hypothetically begin next year. It’s certainly a confident move to build an event film around such an unknown character after Jared Leto‘s “Morbius” struggled recently at the domestic box office.