Who Is El Muerto?
Over the last couple of months, we have had a plethora of information and announcements coming from all major studios concerning their superhero franchises. Sony has ownership of one of the most popular comic book characters of all time, Spider-Man, and also holds the film rights to the characters that are directly connected to him. So far we’ve seen two of these characters come to life on the big screen in their own films, Venom and Morbius. It does not seem like Sony is planning on stopping there either. Three more characters were announced to get their own films that will connect to the overall “Spider-Verse.” One character, in particular, may be lesser known than most: El Muerto.
Juan-Carlos Estrada Sanchez was first introduced to the comic book world in a 2006 issue of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Born in Mexico to a professional luchador, Juan-Carlos was prepped to take the mantel of El Muerto from his father. His father wished to pass down the powers and mask to his son as it was done for generations. In order for this to happen Juan-Carlos would have to prove himself in a match against an oppressor. Even though he initially refused, Juan-Carlos took up the mantel after his father sacrifice his life to save Juan-Carlos from the evil luchador, El Dorado. Out of respect for this sacrifice, El Dorado allowed Juan-Carlos to live and gave him ten years to train. Then, he would have to face another masked wrestler and unmask him.
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After ten years of training, Juan-Carlos found himself in New York City organizing a charity event with J. Jonah Jameson that would bring him face to face with the opponent he must unmask: Spider-Man! Jameson agreed to organize the match in the hopes that El Muerto would reveal his identity. This ended up backfiring on both El Muerto and Jameson, however, when Spider-Man used his stingers to paralyze El Muerto after the luchador came close to unmasking him. After the fight, El Muerto was taken to the hospital to recover from the injection but was attacked by El Dorado. Spider-Man stepped in to help El Muerto and they both tag-teamed El Dorado, forcing him to flee.
These are just the basics about the origins of El Muerto. With his limited comic presence, it’ll be interesting to see what Sony will do with the character and his story! It has already been confirmed that Puerto Rican rap artist Bad Bunny will be playing the title character. He made his acting debut in 2021’s F9: The Fast Saga right before joining Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico. His most recent role was in Bullet Train, which starred Brad Pitt alongside an all-star cast. Hopefully, Sony has something great planned for this new and diverse character!
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Source(s): Marvel