DC's Blue Beetle Star Addresses Batman Backlash: "F--- That"

Batman has many nicknames: The Dark Knight. The Caped Crusader. The World's Greatest Detective. But in the Blue Beetle trailer, the internet came to know the superhero by another name: "Fascist." That's according to Jaime Reyes' (Xolo Maridueña) "conspiracy theorist" uncle Rudy (George Lopez), who responds to a mention of the Gotham vigilante by declaring that "Batman's a fascist!" The line sparked online backlash, with one commentator remarking it must have been written by "someone who's never read Batman at all and probably hates him." But in an interview with Movie Maker, Maridueña and director Angel Manuel Soto say the creatives behind Blue Beetle love Batman.

"We always wanted to have fun with the way Rudy talks about other superheroes," Soto said. "So to the people who got mad at it, give us a chance. We're just trying to have fun with the characters that we love. And everybody in our movie loves Batman and Superman and Flash. And of course, we have criticisms about all of them, as we all should. But that doesn't mean that we hate Batman. We love Batman."

Maridueña added: "F that!"

"Maybe Jaime and the audience don't agree with Rudy, but you're allowed to have your opinion. That's okay," the actor said. "If you felt some type of way about it, that was the point. So I think if you agree with it, if you don't agree with it, it was placed there for a reason. And you know, all of the people who have their Batman shrines at home can keep them there and they don't have to worry."

In Blue Beetle, there's another connection to Batman's home city: Jaime is a recent Gotham Law graduate with a pre-law degree who relocates to his family's house in fictional Palmera City (instead of El, Paso, Texas, like the comics.) The official logline: "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."

DC's Blue Beetle opens August 18th only in theaters.