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BAD BUNNY WASN'T GOING TO BE ONLY PRO WRESTLER IN SPIDER-MAN SPINOFF 'EL MUERTO'

Earlier today, Paul Jordan wrote about the planned Spider-Man spinoff film that was to star WWE celebrity wrestler Bad Bunny as title character El Muerto had been pulled from Sony's feature film schedule.  The film, originally scheduled to be released in January 2024, is now off the books due to the ongoing Writer's Guild strike that has pushed back a massive amount of film and television projects.

While there is no word yet as to the future status of the project, The Hollywood Reporter added that former WWE and current New Japan Pro Wrestling star Mercedes Varnado had been planned for a role in the film.  Varnado crossed over into acting on Star Wars series The Mandalorian, where she portrays Koska Reeves  Varnado is currently recovering from what sources have indicated is a broken ankle.

The Report also noted, "Another factor in the release undating was Bad Bunny’s touring schedule, which had firmed up while the movie was dallying. It is unclear what the fate of the project will be as it’s not clear how long Bad Bunny can remain attached."

Bunny, who put in tremendous performances at Wrestlemania 37, the 2022 Royal Rumble and this year's Backlash was set as the lead star.  The film was to be a cinematic adaptation of a little-known Marvel Comics character for Sony's Spider-Verse films, which are produced outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Sony holds the rights to Spider-Man and all of his associated characters.

Debuting back in 2006 in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #6 by Peter David and Roger Cruz, El Muerto (real name Marcus Estrada de la Garcia) is a masked professional wrestler who's mystical mask allows him to possess superpowers.  The story was that members of the family would pass the identity down through the generations.  After being tasked to unmask a super-hero under the threat of death, Muerto battles Spider-Man (naturally, in a wrestling ring) in an attempt to publicly unmask him.  He almost succeeds but is stopped by Spider-Man.  When his tormentor El Dorado arrives to take his life, Spider-Man helps and teams with El Muerto to stop Dorado.

Bunny himself found the El Muerto character while researching potential Spider-Man characters he could portray and pushed for it to be developed as a theatrical vehicle after Sony approached him wanting to work together. 

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