Warner Bros.’ Blue Beetle movie survived a storm of insanity at the studio and managed to make it into theaters this past weekend. While the film was in production there was a regime change at Warner Bros. and DC Studios, and while the studio was canceling projects like Batgirl, Blue Beetle made it through and is considered a part of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Cinematic Universe.
As you might imagine, the director of Blue Beetle, Ángel Manuel Soto, is relieved to be a part of Gunn’s plans, but we don’t know exactly what the future of Blue Beetle looks like right now. Soto told THR:
“Yeah, that was for sure one of the elements of relief. It’s the fact that all of this effort was not going to die during this regime change. We survived regime changes throughout this whole process, and that was a testament to the hard work that everybody put into it.
“There’s also a belief in our characters, who are now going to be part of this new DC universe, especially Xolo’s character and his whole family and Bruna Marquezine’s character. So, knowing that they are going to continue to move forward in the DCU allowed me to feel relief for myself and for them. It’s a testament to the amount of heart and talent that they have.”
I mean, their continuation really all depends on the box office numbers. As of right now, it underperformed with $25 million on it’s opening weekend. Audiences and fans showed up, but not in droves. Some people might not think it’s worth forking over the big bucks to go watch this movie, because going to the movies isn’t cheap these days!
I haven’t had a chance to see Blue Beetle yet as I’ve been traveling, but I’ll eventually get around to it sometime this week. The movie has been getting good reviews, though.
When Soto started envisioning the journey of Blue Beetle, he planned out a trilogy of films. When previously talking about his full vision of Blue Beetle, the filmmaker said:
“Our first movie, the way we wanted to do it, was always with the mentality that we wanted to do two more, at least, and taking the traditional three-act structure of a story, we wanted our first movie to practically be the first act of a saga.
“We are part of the universe, we are part of the world, we are part of the plans that they have been creating for the future instalments of the DCU. But we are not tied to all the films from the past. Yes, our movie lives in the world where superheroes exist. But that doesn’t mean that a certain event, or certain alliance, or certain things from the past dictate where our film is going.”
The story for the movie centers on Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), the alter ego of the Blue Beetle, a vigilante who has a scarab grafted onto his spine that gives him tremendous powers and the ability to emit blue energy. Here’s the synopsis:
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 Blue Beetle also stars Bruna Marquezine as Penny, the female lead and love interest; Belissa Escobedo as Jamie’s younger sister, Milagros; as well as Harvey Guillén; and Susan Sarandon as the villain Victoria Kord.
If you’ve seen Blue Beetle, what did you think!? Are you hoping to see more of the character in the future?
