To Die Sane - What We Know So Far

A new face in the world of Marvel will be starring in an upcoming thriller that meshes the story of ICE agents and forced deportations with a classic myth of El Cuco, a dark figure from Latinx lore. "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" star Danny Ramirez will produce and star in the film "To Die Sane," co-written by Moises Zamora and Carlos Cisco, as announced by Deadline. 

Marvel fans will recognize Ramirez from his role as Joaquin Torres in the new action series on Disney+ that stars Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. Ramirez's character Torres first appears in the Marvel comics in 2015 in the "Captain America: Sam Wilson" series, in which he befriends the new Captain America and eventually becomes his new sidekick, taking over the helm of Falcon. Considering his storyline in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," it appears that Marvel might be heading in this direction as well, but we will have to wait and see. 

The upcoming movie is a great next project for Ramirez, a politically-charged thriller that allows the actor to take center stage as a man who spirals into paranoia and distrust. So far, there isn't a lot of information out about the details of "To Die Sane," but here's everything we know so far about the highly anticipated movie.

Well, this is certainly a tough question to answer this early in the game, but we can guess that it might be a year or two before "To Die Sane" is released. Right now, Ramirez is filming an upcoming Hulu series called "Plus/Minus," which stars Lily Reinhart as Natalie, a young woman whose life splits between two different, paralleling scenarios — one in which she becomes pregnant as a young adult in her hometown in Texas, and another in which she successfully moves to LA to follow her dreams, only to face other obstacles (via The Hollywood Reporter). Ramirez is the only other actor aside from Reinhart on the IMDb page whose character has an actual name, Gabe, while no other details have been revealed about his character, or those of Luke Wilson, Andrea Savage, Aisha Dee, and more. Ramirez also recently finished filming two films called "Root Letter" and "No Exit," which are currently in post-production. 

"To Die Sane" will likely start filming after Ramirez finishes up "Plus/Minus," unless of course Marvel already has another appearance planned for Torres, which is entirely possible. It's reasonable to assume that the upcoming thriller will start filming either in late 2021 or early 2022, which means that the movie will probably premiere around early 2023. Of course, this is all just an estimation, and depending on a lot of factors like the length of the shoot, the speed of post-production, and the form of distribution, the movie could come out a lot earlier or marginally later. It's hard to say.

Along with the new Hulu series "Plus/Minus" and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," Ramirez has already made quite the impression on Hollywood. The young actor has also appeared in the hit Netflix series "On My Block" as Mario Martinez, the older brother of Ruby Martinez played by Jason Genao, along with TV appearances in "The Gifted" and "Orange is the New Black." Ramirez also played the character Diamond in "Assassination Nation," and he will make an appearance in the upcoming action movie "Top Gun: Maverick." 

While there is no one else in the official cast yet and no word on other main characters, "To Die Sane" has a few great names behind the story and producing team. Co-writer and producer Zamora is the creator of Netflix's "Selena: The Series," while he also wrote for "American Crime" and "Star," and the film's other writer Cisco previously worked on "East Los High." Ramirez, Zamora, and Bianca Quesada are producing, and according to the report from Deadline on the project, the production company Zone One Productions might already have a director picked out, but one has not been announced yet.

The upcoming film hasn't released a lot of information about the plot, by what we know so far sounds very compelling. "To Die Sane" focuses on "a brutally effective Mexican-American ICE agent who becomes increasingly paranoid and unhinged after a detained young immigrant commits suicide and his fellow agents fall victim one by one to El Cuco, the mythic child-snatching figure of Latino lore." Ramirez is expected to play the main character in a culturally relevant story shown from a new angle, through the El Cuco mythology. 

If the name El Cuco sounds familiar to some people who aren't Latinx and know the story from their culture and heritage, you might be remembering it from the Stephen King adaptation of "The Outsider" for HBO. The TV series heavily features the figure in its main storyline, but to say anything else would spoil a lot of the popular show. El Cuco goes by many names, like Coca and Cucuí, but to put it simply, he's a bogeyman. As part of a very old legend, El Cuco is a shape-shifting demon who goes after children who misbehave, and in past history the figure has been shown as a guardian dragon, before it transformed into the darker figure it is today (Ancient Origins). 

El Cuco is still a legend spoken of by parents to warn their kids to behave, lest they be kidnapped and eaten by the demon. Considering the particularity of this myth and the fact that it's very rarely shown up in modern media, it'll be very exciting to see how "To Die Sane" incorporates the myth of El Cuco with Ramirez's character and the ICE storyline.