Bad Bunny to star in 'El Muerto,' Marvel's first Latino lead

Grammy Award-winning música urbana star Bad Bunny will play the first Latino lead in a live-action Marvel movie as the superpowered luchador El Muerto, Sony Pictures announced at the trade show CinemaCon in Las Vegas Monday.

"It's amazing, it's incredible," Bad Bunny, 28, born Benito António Martínez Ocasio in Puerto Rico, told the crowd of the "El Muerto" movie, according to a transcription by Deadline.com. "I love wrestling. I grew up watching wrestling and I'm a wrestler," continued the multiplatinum recording artist, who in 2021 began appearing as a guest pro wrestler with the WWE and was awarded the 24/7 Championship at the 2021 Royal Rumble. "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."

In Marvel Comics, the character El Muerto — Spanish for "The Dead One" — is Juan Carlos Estrada Sanchez, the scion of a luchador family whose mask provides superhuman strength and endurance, at the cost of allegiance to the ominous El Dorado ("The Golden One"). Created by writer Peter David and penciler Roger Cruz in "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" No. 6 in 2006, and appearing only once more, in the following issue, El Muerto battled Spider-Man at a charity wrestling event, nearly unmaking the superhero, who reflexively stung the wrestler with paralyzing poison. Remorsefully visiting El Muerto in the hospital, Spider-Man teams with him to stop El Dorado from claiming El Muerto's life.

The movie is scheduled to open in theaters on Jan. 12, 2024.

Bad Bunny's previous acting roles include the recurring character Arturo "Kitty" Páez in the Netflix series "Narcos: Mexico”; a lookout in "F9: The Fast Saga" (2021); and one of a collection of killers in the upcoming action thriller "Bullet Train,” starring Brad Pitt and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

At the same Sony presentation, the filmmaking duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller showed the unfinished first 15 minutes of the animated sequel, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse."

According to industry accounts, the still-rough footage showed Spider-Woman/Gwen Stacy (voice of Hailee Steinfeld) battling her universe's version of the Vulture. Aiding her is another universe's pregnant Spider-Woman/Jessica Drew (Issa Rae) and yet another's Spider-Man of 2099/Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac). Meanwhile, the teenage Spider-Man/Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and his parents (Luna Lauren Velez, Brian Tyree Henry) meet with a high school administrator (Rachel Dratch).

"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is set for release June 2, 2023, with a third movie, "Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse," due out March 29, 2024.