When George Lopez revealed that Batman is in Blue Beetle, DC’s Latino-led superhero movie, few might have guessed the first trailer would end with the actor-comedian calling the Dark Knight a “fascist.” On Monday, Warner Bros. shared footage from the Angel Manuel Soto-directed solo movie seemingly set within the established DC Extended Universe that introduced Ben Affleck’s Batman as the criminal-branding “Bat vigilante” of Gotham City. (“Civil liberties are being trampled on in your city. Good people are living in fear,” Henry Cavill’s Clark Kent questioned Bruce Wayne of Batman, a controversial costumed vigilante who “thinks he’s above the law.”)
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Those anti-Bat sentiments have carried to coastal Palmera City, where directionless college graduate Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) lives with his Mexican-American family: his parents, Alberto (Damían Alcázar) and Bianca (Elpidia Carrillo), sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo), grandmother Nana (Adriana Barraza), and Uncle Rudy (Lopez).
After Jaime bonds with the Scarab, an ancient relic of alien biotechnology that endows him with a super-suit of high-tech alien armor, he says new arsenal is “like Batman’s stuff.” In a gag ending the trailer, Uncle Rudy shouts back, “Batman’s a fascist!” The line has caused a bit of a stir on social media, especially among Bat-fans.
“[Whoever] wrote that line [is] someone who’s never read Batman at all and probably hates him,” one fan tweeted. Another Twitter user commented that the joke is “a weird button to end that trailer on.” See more reactions below.
“Initially, my goal with finding the family was to be able to have anauthentic group of people, not just as authentic on the Latino side,but authentic on the accents and authentic on the experience overall, itwas very important for me to have the elders in the family to be fromMexico,” Soto said when announcing the Blue Beetle cast. “And more than just being from Mexico ishonoring those amazing beloved actors from Mexico that have paved theway not just in Latin American cinema, but also crossing over to theAnglo Saxon community and Latin American community in the UnitedStates.”
Soto continued, “And then you have somebody on the younger side, the newblood that’s coming in, like Belissa and Xolo, they’re Mexican-American,and tying them with the guys that came before which have a stronghistory of being born in Mexico and then coming over to the US. Beingable to provide a Mexican family, a brown Mexican family, that embracesthat level of authenticity, I think this cast allowed us to have all ofthat.”
Also starring Bruna Marquezine as Jenny Kord, Raoul Max Trujillo as the indestructible villain Carapax, Harvey Guillén as Dr. Sanchez, and Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord, DC’s Blue Beetle opens August 18th only in theaters.
