Why Blue Beetle is Now DC Studios’ Most Important Movie

Blue Beetle might have been initially conceived as a much smaller project before, but the last few months have now suddenly made it the most important movie in DC Studios’ future slate. It’s been a wild end to 2022 for fans of DC Universe’s slate of feature film projects as not only have some of them gone through massive changes as the result of new co-CEO James Gunn and Peter Safra wanting to start their work with a clean slate, but some of the films in the former pipeline had been outright canceled. But it’s been a different case for Blue Beetle. 

While first slated for an intended streaming release with HBO Max, things have changed for Blue Beetle so dramatically that now it’s aiming for a full theatrical debut some time next year. With Gunn confirming that DC Studios does intend to release the new film despite how little promotional materials have been released thus far, Blue Beetle has become a much more important movie than anyone could have expected. It’s the first real chance DC Studios will have at a clean start. 

Why is Blue Beetle So Important? 

Blue Beetle offers a potential story that could be self-contained in comparison to many of the other projects still in the pipeline such as Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and The Flash. A fresh origin story featuring Xolo Maridueña as the young Jamie Reyes turned unsuspecting hero is the clean slate start that DC Studios is currently looking for. It’s (hopefully) not caught up in the, admittedly lame duck phase the other three films are stuck in that continue to have ties to the old version of the universe. 

Any former potential ties that Blue Beetle had to the previous DCEU can be wiped out completely in favor of essentially starting the universe with Reyes as the first real look into the future. Sure it might have started production as part of the older wave, but it can be released as the first of the new wave to come. Not only that, but it’s important for all of its representation reasons too as it’s going to be DC’s first real Latinx superhero leading a film of their own. 

READ MORE: Lessons James Gunn’s DC Studios Can Learn From the Arrowverse | DC Studios’ James Gunn Confirms Blue Beetle Release | 10 Birds of Prey Members We Still Want to See in the DC Universe

Blue Beetle isn’t the biggest hero, but Jaime Reyes will become the most important. It’s not like DC Studios will realistically focus an entire universe around this young offshoot of the old regime, but that’s totally on the table. Why not base this new universe around the hero that hits the ground running first? Make it the film fans need to watch to get a hint of what could come next, and suddenly we’ve got a much bigger deal than anyone ever could have expected. 

But what are you hoping to see from Blue Beetle as part of DC Studios’ future? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things Blue Beetle and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!