Blue Beetle is a popular Latino hero in the DC Universe, and now he’s getting his own movie. Even so far from release, fans are excited about how the film looks. Those involved in making it have already proven Blue Beetle will be a triumph for Latinx cultures. Thankfully, even after Batgirl was canceled in the DCEU, Blue Beetle remains safe. Fans were worried that Blue Beetle might face the chopping block in the DCEU restructuring process, but for now, it seems Warner Bros. Discovery is continuing to invest in the project.
Blue Beetle is the story of Jaime Reyes, a Mexican-American teenager that finds a mysterious robotic scarab that fuses with his spine and gives him the ability to summon a powerful suit of armor. Though this may seem like a blessing, Jaime quickly discovers that the beetle has a mind of its own and is sometimes able to control him instead of the other way around. Blue Beetle is DC’s first Latinx hero to get their own feature film, and the director, writer, and nearly all the cast are Latinx as well. Blue Beetle has long deserved more screen time, and now it looks like they’re going to get it. Here’s everything we know about Blue Beetle.
The first Blue Beetle was created for comics by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, although the character was later owned by Charlton Comics. This original iteration of the character first appeared in 1939, but later successors, now owned by DC and applicable to their 10-year movie plan, found their way to the DC universe in the 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths series. DC reintroduced the Blue Beetle hero mantle in the mid-2000s, during which he worked with Booster Gold and became a member of the Teen Titans and the Justice League.
DC began work on a modern Blue Beetle movie in 2018, with casting running from 2021 into 2022. Several updates about the film’s progress have been released along the way, including several production and casting announcements.
Blue Beetle: The Plot
For the DCEU’s Blue Beetle story, the studio will be focusing on the third generation of the character, as several have held the Blue Beetle mantle over the years. The first embodiment of the character was Dan Garrett, who received his powers from an Egyptian Scarab. The second chronicled Ted Kord, an Arrowverse hopeful, who used science and technology to carry on the hero’s mantle. The third and final Blue Beetle is Jaime Reyes, a teenager from El Paso who discovers the original blue Scarab and receives alien armor when the artifact grafts to his spine. Although little information has been revealed about the exact Blue Beetle story has been revealed, it does seem likely that the film will cover Jaime’s heroic origin story and his conflicts with antagonist Victoria Kord and, potentially, a long-time Blue Beetle villain Carapax the Indestructible Man.
Jaime Reyes is the third but most popular Blue Beetle. If this is an origin story, it will cover the moment he found the scarab. If Victoria Kord is anything like Ted Kord in the comic books, she will somehow be related to the mysterious technology. But, where Ted Kord was the second Blue Beetle and occasional member of the Justice League, this new Victoria Kord will be a villain, according to The Wrap.
We know from the cast list that Carapax the Indestructible Man will be involved, so the story is likely to go along the lines of this evil Kord corporation inventing the technology and then giving it to this man only to have it be misused.
In the comics, Jaime Reyes finds the scarab after it is flung to his hometown of El Paso, Texas, from the exploding Rock of Eternity. This is the home of the wizard Shazam, so one wonders if Blue Beetle will connect to the Black Adam and Shazam movie coming out. After Jaime discovers the scarab, it fuses to his spine while he is sleeping. But this is likely where the film story will part from the comic book. If we can draw any conclusions from the cast list, Victoria Kord will probably be aware of the scarab and send the powerful Carapax to retrieve it. Jaime must likely find a way to work with the scarab in order to protect himself and his mind from the strange technology.
Blue Beetle: The Cast & Crew
The Latinx cast is stacked with talent. Xolo Maridueña, who plays Miguel in Cobra Kai, will be starring as Jaime Reyes, and we couldn’t think of a better actor for the role. Additionally, Belissa Escobedo will portray Jaime’s sister, Milagros Reyes, and Bruna Marquezine will play Jaime’s love interest, Penny. As far as villains go, Raoul Max Trujillo will play Carapax the Indestructible Man, who after appearing in the Blue Beetle movie may be added to DC’s ranks of immortal heroes with Black Adam if the name is any indication, and Susan Sarandon will play the new character Victoria Kord. Finally, in an undisclosed role, Javier “Harvey” Guillén of What We Do In the Shadows fame will also be in Blue Beetle.
Blue Beetle Release Date
The movie has completed filming and is currently in post-production. Though at first, the Blue Beetle project was set to release exclusively on HBO Max, the film is now coming to theaters with a release date set for August 18, 2023, despite Warner Bros. Discovery’s mass cancelations.
