Blue Beetle Director Teases Comic Influences and Character's DCU Future

By Jenna Anderson

There has been a lot of hype surrounding the Blue Beetle movie, especially after it was moved from an HBO Max exclusive to theaters. With the debut of Blue Beetle's first trailer on Monday, we've now got our first look at what that will entail — and the crew involved with the film are speaking about its past and future. At a recent press Q&A with ComicBook.com and other outlets, director Angel Manuel Soto spoke about the comic-accurate roots of Blue Beetle.

"The New 52 was a big inspiration, as far as the suit goes and other aspects of the story, but we took a lot from bits and pieces," Soto revealed. "There are a lot of great stuff in all the different runs, and we were like, 'Man, how do you choose one?' We were like, 'Do we have to choose one? No, let's do whatever the f-ck we want with it.' Just have fun and create something awesome, create something really interesting that takes the greatest hits — even from the Injustice 2 game. We really deep dive on it because it's f-cking dope."

And as we wait to see if and how Blue Beetle's canon will be folded into James Gunn and Peter Safran's reset DC Universe, Soto spoke about the larger legacy the film could have.

"If y'all help us and this movie becomes a massive f*cking hit, we're going to see a lot of those," Soto explained. "That's what needs to happen. If we want to see more by variety and really celebrate differences, celebrate culture, celebrate other worlds, because it's fun. The lores are so spectacular. The only way is by supporting movies, right, supporting a movie like this because, I've said it before and I say it all the time. And you're right, maybe it's the Latino humbleness or that sh-t, whatever. But this is not about me. This is not about Xolo. I don't really care about me. What I care about is opening doors, and in a world where people really crave taking people down, and I made them fail, all that bullsh-t, supporting each other is the only way we can tell different stories. Not all of them are going to be perfect, but they're going to exist. And being able to see other kids watch this movie, or watch other movies, and see themselves represented and say like, 'Man, I want to tell a story about my community.' And then that kid becomes an amazing writer. And then we're going to see all those characters that you want to see because I want to see them, too. I want to support that vision, but the only way is showing them that people want to see that. Let's party."

What is the Blue Beetle movie about?

In Blue Beetle, recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armor capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the Super Hero Blue Beetle. 

The cast will also include Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord, Bruna Marquezine as Penny, Belissa Escobedo, George Lopez, Adriana Barraza, Elpidia Carillo, and Damián Alcázar as members of Jaime's family, and Harvey Guillen in a currently-unknown role.

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Are you excited for DC's Blue Beetle movie? What did you think of the first trailer for the movie? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Blue Beetle is currently set to be released in exclusively in theaters on Friday, August 18th.

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