‘Bullet Train’ Is Offering Fans A Look Into The Next Stop In The Bad Bunny Sphere

With a leading role in upcoming film ‘El Muerto’, the Puerto Rican musician’s spot in this weekend’s box office no. 1 is just a sign of what’s to come!

Supporting roles in action-comedies usually serve at least one of three purposes: punch lines, convenient plot progressions, and deaths. Bad Bunny’s brief appearance in David Leitch’s Bullet Train isn’t any different. He plays a Mexican assassin known in the criminal underworld as the Wolf. Sporting a black-and-white suit soaked in wine and blood, he’s out for revenge—and it just so happens to be on the Nippon Speed Line. As the train approaches, the Wolf, with determined stoicism and his target set, removes his Ray-Bans. What follows is a confrontation with Brad Pitt’s enlightened hitman Ladybug (who may or may not be involved in the Wolf’s vendetta). Broken bottles, briefcase blows to the head, and ultimately, a ricocheting knife stab to the heart quickly lead to his demise—though not before he’s left an indelible impression.

While brief, it’s a memorable appearance—the kind that could help put an upstart on a path toward stardom. Except in this case, the actor is already one of the biggest stars in the world. It’s just that for many theatergoers, it may have been their first glimpse of him. Though given the trajectory of Bad Bunny’s career, it likely won’t be their last.

Just a few years ago, Bad Bunny—the Puerto Rican musician born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—was bagging groceries and posting tracks on SoundCloud. But that changed in 2016, starting with his breakout single, “Soy Peor.” Since then, Bad Bunny has gone on to release four solo albums (and a collaborative album with J Balvin), fly from the top rope at WrestleMania, appear as a drug trafficker in Narcos: Mexico, and make a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in the Fast & Furious franchise. He’s been Spotify’s most-streamed artist since 2020. His El Último Tour Del Mundo became the highest-grossing tour ever by a Latinx artist—and just this past weekend, he kicked off another run of stadium shows in America that will add to his eye-popping ticket-sales figures. On top of all that, El Último Tour and this year’s Un Verano Sin Ti are the first all-Spanish-language albums to crack no. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Bullet Train may be the general American audience’s first exposure to him, but make no mistake: Bad Bunny is already a worldwide phenomenon.

He’s gotten there by becoming a genre-bending chameleon who breaks the mold of what reggaeton is supposed to sound like. Bad Bunny’s music draws on his affinity for hard rock, merengue, and trap, morphing all of it into his own unique sound—one that you can’t help but find yourself dancing to. But beyond his stylistic flourishes, Bad Bunny’s success goes against everything that entertainment executives have long boxed Latinx artists into doing: that in order to succeed in the United States, you must shed a part of your identity, your culture, to fit the sensibilities of non-Spanish-speaking American audiences. His songs are sung exclusively in Spanish. (That includes his parts in collaborations with Drake and Cardi B.) Even in Bullet Train, Bad Bunny still speaks in his native tongue, with a sprinkle of lines in English. It’s a deliberate decision on his part. Arriba Bad Bunny – Orgullo Latino!