Bad Bunny is Bringing This Queer Drama to Netflix

The screen adaptation of queer YA sensation They Both Die at the End has now found a home with Netflix, Deadline reports. The series is being adapted by Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen and executive produced by Yellowjackets executive producer Drew Comins and Grammy award-winning rapper Bad Bunny.

Written by Adam Silvera, They Both Die at the End is set in a society where the “Death-Cast” corporation accurately predicts the date of a person’s death and issues a notification 24 hours in advance. When two teen boys, Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio, receive their Death-Cast call on the same day, they meet one another on the “Last Friend” app. From there, the story follows their “end day,” in which the two fit an entire lifetime of experiences.

The book became the first YA novel featuring queer Latinx characters to hit the number one spot on The New York Times bestsellers list upon its 2017 release. It was originally picked up to be adapted for HBO, but the deal fell through. Since then, the adaptation rights have been embroiled in a fierce bidding war, with no less than five networks vying for the contract. Netflix eventually won out on January 9.

Although Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio (better known by his rapper name Bad Bunny) might seem like an unexpected choice for executive producer, he has been steadily building up his presence in Hollywood. He has acted in Bullet Train and Narcos: Mexico, and he will star in the upcoming Sony Spider-Man Universe film, El Muerto.

The context behind the why #HerNameWasAlexa https://t.co/Aihu3h8cWs pic.twitter.com/N8DsZyZpDG

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) February 28, 2020

Bad Bunny has also consistently expressed solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. During a 2020 performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he wore a shirt that read “They Killed Alexa. Not a Man in a Skirt,” protesting the media’s transphobic coverage of the murder of Puerto Rican transgender woman Alexa Negrón Luciano.

In the following year, he appeared in drag in the music video for “Yo Perreo Sola” (“I Twerk Alone”), a song about women wanting to dance in clubs without attention from men. Although he anticipated strong anti-LGBTQ+ backlash to the video, he was not deterred. “I did it to show support to those who need it,” he told Rolling Stone. “I may not be gay, but I’m a human who cares.”