A full month from now, Madame Web might be making its manner into theaters. Like Venom and Morbius earlier than it, the movie is Sony’s bid at making a universe of interconnected Spider-Man films that don’t characteristic the hero in query. And in one other universe, we’d have a kind of films enjoying out in theaters this weekend.
In mid-2022, Sony curiously introduced it was engaged on a film for El Muerto that was set to launch on January 12, 2024. In the event you haven’t heard of him, don’t fear, he’s solely actually proven up in two points, each of which had been again in 2006 . Created by Peter David and Roger Cruz through the former’s Pleasant Neighborhood Spider-Man run, the mantle belongs to 2 males: Juan-Carlos Sánchez and his father, Marcus Estrada de la García. Marcus educated Juan-Carlos to develop into the subsequent El Muerto, wrestlers who wore mystical masks that give them superhuman energy and sturdiness. Throughout the remaining a part of the check, the 2 are attacked by one other supernatural wrestler named El Dorado, who kills Marcus. Juan-Carlos spent the next ten years coaching to avenge his father and sought out Spider-Man so to beat the hero in a wrestling match and unmask him; the 2 later teamed up in opposition to El Dorado and despatched him fleeing.
El Muerto hasn’t been seen since, however Sony’s would-be film for him had an ace up its sleeve in Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny. The Puerto Rican rapper has been an expert wrestler since 2021, and he was already beginning to department out into performing with Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico and the then-upcoming motion flick Bullet Prepare. However Sony didn’t have something readily available for the movie past Ocasio’s inclusion, not even a lot as a title card or director hooked up. And over a full 12 months after the announcement, the studio pulled the movie from its release schedule fully, and it’s unclear asto what capability El Muerto at the moment exists.
It’s a bizarre sequence of occasions, however not fully irregular for Sony. Again in 2014, the studio introduced it was engaged on a Silver Sable/Black Cat film dubbed Silver & Black that had The Previous Guard’s Gina Prince-Blythewood readily available to direct. That mission was then seemingly scrapped to give attention to just Sable, and now it’s simply apparently full-on useless, ditto an Aunt Might film talked about within the notorious Sony email hack. Sony’s plans for its terribly-named universe of Spider-Man-adjacent media is far and wide, and even with a Venom trilogy set to shut this 12 months and two totally different Spider-Man characters getting their very own TV exhibits, it stays unclear which of those will really, actually occur.
The place would we be if the El Muerto had come out as meant? It’s arduous to say; wrestling may be very standard, and Dangerous Bunny is a fairly good artist, however the character’s idea appears like a tough promote. Large-budget wrestling films don’t actually get made nowadays, and wrestlers like Dwayne Johnson, John Cena, and Florence Pugh have taken extra natural swings into the superhero house. Extra importantly, Sony’s seemingly content material with its superhero movies feeling like they’re from twenty years in the past and simply doing regardless of the hell they need. However Morbius was a transparent indicator that fashion of filmmaking can solely go to this point, so perhaps it’s for the perfect that Sony both benched El Muerto till it’s certain the movie’s able to step into the ring or instructed it to hit the showers.
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