Sony's Spider-Man spin-off El Muerto movie signs up Alfonso Cuaron's son to direct

Sony Pictures is continuing to mine unexpected areas of the Marvel Universe as it expands its Spider-Man movie universe, with the news that Jonas Cuarón has signed on to direct El Muerto, an upcoming movie featuring a Spider-Man supporting character that even fans of the wall-crawling hero might find it hard to recognize.

As originally reported by The Wrap, Cuarón — the son of celebrated Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, of Children of Men and Y tu mamá también fame — will helm the in-development project from a screenplay by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, writer of Warner Bros. Discovery’s Blue Beetle movie. Puerto Rican rapper Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as the Grammy Award winner Bad Bunny, will star in the title role.

El Muerto is a genuinely obscure part of Marvel’s comic book canon, having debuted in 2006’s Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #6 — one of only two appearances to date. (The second was the next issue of the series.) Hailing from a family of luchadores, Juan-Carlos Sánchez was trained from an early age to take on the mantle of El Muerto, only to reject the role at the last minute… a decision that led to the death of his father at the hands of another superhuman luchador, known as El Dorado. A showdown between the two wrestlers included Spider-Man, who helped save the day by assisting in El Muerto’s victory.

The El Muerto movie was originally announced in April, with Bad Bunny attached as star. It’s one of a number of movies in development at Sony based on Spider-Man supporting characters, alongside Kraven the Hunter, and Madame Web. The studio has already spun both Venom and Morbius out into solo movies, to varying degrees of success.

Details on Sony’s Madame Web are being kept under wraps, but we do know that Severance’s Adam Scott will be part of the movie in a mystery role.