Who Is El Muerto? Meet the Marvel Star Being Played by Bad Bunny

Bad Bunny (real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) has been announced as the star of El Muerto, the new Sony Marvel film coming to theaters on January 12, 2024.

El Muerto is one of the characters owned by Sony, meaning the character will be in the same universe as characters like Venom (played by Tom Hardy) and Morbius (Jared Leto) rather than in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Spider-Man fans may recognize the character, but El Muerto is a lesser-known comic book character. He will, however, make Bad Bunny the first Latino actor leading a Marvel movie. If the movie follows the comic books, the character will also be the first Marvel headlined by a native Spanish speaker.

Bad Bunny in concert in April 2022. The performer will headline Marvel movie “El Muerto” in 2024. Getty

In the comic books, El Muerto (“The Dead”) is usually a Spider-Man villain. He has a complicated family life and backstory that will give the film plenty to work with without ever having to feature Peter Parker at all.

The character’s real name is Juan-Carlos Estrada Sánchez. The name “El Muerto” is a family one—Sanchez comes from a long line of wrestlers who call themselves by that name, and have magical wrestling masks that give them superpowers. The character only speaks broken English in the comics, which may mean Marvel is set to release its first bilingual film.

That magical mask gives the character superhuman strength, and also a high level of endurance. By the time he meets Spidey in the comics, he is also a highly competent wrestler.

At the start of his story, however, that is not the case. Sanchez joins the Spider-Man canon after breaking with family tradition. When it comes to be his time to take on the El Muerto identity, Sanchez does not want it, and so refuses to take part in the ritual fight with a character named El Dorado that would grant him his mask.

This refusal leads El Dorado to try and kill Sanchez, whose father dies trying to defend his son. After this ordeal, Sanchez is given another way to prove himself—he has 10 years to train, and then has to defeat and unmask a masked hero. Of course, he chooses Spider-Man, at which point he joins the rogue’s gallery of Peter Parker villains.

Sony owns the rights to all these villains, hence why the company is following up its fellow Spidey villain movies like Venom, Morbius and the upcoming Kraven the Hunter film with one focused on El Muerto.

It seems that the movie studio will be telling this origin story in the El Muerto film. Per Variety, the film will begin with Bad Bunny’s character about to inherit his father’s power. This heavily suggests that El Dorado will be the antagonist of the film, though casting for the character has not yet been announced.