Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny becomes first Latino actor cast as Marvel action film lead
Grammy winner and rap star Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, best known by his stage name Bad Bunny, has been cast as Marvel anti-hero comic character El Muerto, a super-powered wrestler, in Sony's Spider-Man spin-off movie El Muerto. This makes him the first Latino actor to play a Marvel live-action film lead.
“This is the perfect role to me. It will be epic to me,” Bad Bunny said when taking the stage alongside Sony executive Sanford Panitch, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Panitch announced the El Muerto movie will be released in theatres on January 12, 2024.
El Muerto's comic character has only made a dozen appearances as a super-powered wrestler Spider-Man saved from death. His father was killed by a mystical wrestling god known as El Dorado, and he threatened El Muerto with the same fate if he didn't claim a mask and become a wrestling champion.
The Latino rapper’s first feature is Bullet Train which will hit the cinemas on July 29. Sony Motion Pictures President John Greenstein welcomed the film's “visionary director” David Leitch who said that he and producing partner Kelly McCormick intended to make something “incredibly original, something that would get people back into the cinema. I believe we did that.”
Bullet Train is described as "a fun, delirious action-thriller with Brad Pitt leading an ensemble cast of eclectic, diverse assassins — all with connected yet conflicting objectives — set against the backdrop of a non-stop ride through modern-day Japan." It’s a Pitt “like you’ve never seen him before,” said Leitch. The scene with Pitt walking the streets of Tokyo, on the phone Sandra Bullock's character as she explains the mission that involves retrieving a briefcase with a sticker on it seems to shed a light on the director's comment.
The train journey features a full 10-minute footage that ends with Bad Bunny’s explosive fight scene with Pitt.
According to The Direct, El Muerto marks Bad Bunny's third film or TV appearance to date after making a name for himself as a platinum-selling recording artist. He's also won four Latin Grammy Awards and two Grammy Awards.
