Months after removing the film from its production schedule, the Spider-Man spin-off film from Sony – El Muerto – is not yet down and out.
Professional wrestling is basically built on the entertaining sequence of a performer seemingly being out for the count until the referee is just about to count to three.
You all know what happens next: they miraculously lift a shoulder, the bout goes on and the fans go wild. It’s an unending loop that has sustained pro wrestling for a century and making it so popular that Netflix recently shelled out $5bn for rights to WWE’s flagship RAW programme. That signalled a downgrade in its film division in favour of brightly-coloured spandex and theatrical entrances.
In short, pro wrestling is a potential goldmine and one that Sony seems intent on exploring with El Muerto, a Spider-Man spin-off film that we all thought the studio had abandoned.
The project was announced just under two years ago, with music superstar Bad Bunny named as the film’s star. The premise of the film would follow the titular character, ‘a super powered wrestler who originally fought Spider-Man in a charity wrestling match in which he nearly unmasked the web-slinger before being stung by Spider-Man with a paralysing poison. After his oppressor El Dorado came to claim his life, he was saved by Spider-Man, after which the two team up to defeat Dorado.’
Then, around seven months ago, the project was removed from Sony’s production schedule following stories that Bad Bunny couldn’t make the film work around his own schedule of touring, recording and generally being a megastar. Of course, the strikes didn’t help things at all and thus, the project was removed from Sony’s schedule.
With Bad Bunny seemingly out, we thought the project would remain shelved. After all, it’s his fame that we imagine drew Sony to the project given that the studio would have loved to have tapped into the artist’s huge fanbase.
But apparently not. Variety is reporting that ‘Sony has quietly resumed the development process for El Muerto and the hunt is on for a replacement to take the title role.’
So there you go, El Muerto is still on the cards should Sony be able to to find the right lead for the project. Whether the box office performance of the upcoming Madame Web will change things we don’t yet know, but right now, Sony is seemingly still actively developing the project.
The Variety piece is a wider look into the state of Sony’s universe of Marvel characters and is worth a read. We’ll bring you more on El Muerto if and when we hear it.
