After Sony executives were impressed by the performance of singer Bad Bunny in the studio's film Bullet Train (2022) they became interested in having him star in another high-profile film. They settled on the minor Spider-Man-related character El Muerto, a wrestler who has superhuman strength, and looked to move quickly on the project. Bad Bunny made a "surprise appearance" at Sony's CinemaCon panel in April 2022 to announce the film, with a scheduled release date of January 12, 2024. In October, Jonás Cuarón and Garreth Dunnet-Alcocer were hired to respectively direct and write the film. Bad Bunny said in March 2023 that the film had yet to enter production, with his publicist confirming that it was "at a standstill" but still "in development". The film was pulled from Sony's release schedule in June due to Bad Bunny's touring schedule and the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, and Bad Bunny was no longer involved by that July. The film re-entered development by January 2024 after further revisions to the script, with Sony intending for it to be a standalone film similar to their other SSU films.