Blue Beetle is a 2023 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle, produced by DC Studios and The Safran Company. The film was directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer. It is the 14th installment of the DC Extended Universe. The film stars Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle alongside Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo, Bruna Marquezine, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, and George Lopez.
Development of a film featuring Reyes began by the end of November 2018 with Dunnet-Alcocer attached. Soto was hired to direct the film in February 2021 for the streaming service HBO Max. Maridueña was cast that August, and the film was changed to have a theatrical release in December. Further casting took place in early 2022, before filming took place from late May to mid-July at Wilder Studios in Decatur, Georgia, as well as in El Paso, Texas, and Puerto Rico.
Blue Beetle premiered in El Paso on August 15, 2023, and was released in the United States on August 18, 2023, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the action sequences, humor, and Maridueña's performance.
In a remote frozen tundra of Antarctica, members of Kord Industries, lead by the company's co-founder and CEO Victoria Kord, manage to locate an ancient alien artifact known as the Scarab.
Meanwhile, Jaime Reyes returns to his hometown of Palmera City after graduating from Gotham Law University only to learn that his family is facing eviction from their home due to financial difficulties. Jaime's sister Milagro manages to get him a job working at Victoria's mansion. However, both of them are fired after Jaime steps in to stop a confrontation between Victoria and her niece Jenny. Jenny later tells Jaime to meet her at Kord Tower the next day to discuss a "job opportunity".
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The next day, Jenny finds that Victoria is using the Scarab for her One Man Army Corps projects. She steals the Scarab and avoids security by giving it to Jaime hidden inside a Big Belly Burger to-go box. At home, Jaime's family convinces him to open the box containing the Scarab. When Jaime touches it, the Scarab activates and fuses with him, creating an armored suit.
Jaime later goes to find Jenny for answers, rescuing her from Victoria's armed forces. She tells Jaime that the Scarab is a sentient weapon and that it has willingly chosen Jaime to be its host. With the help of Jaime's uncle Rudy, Jaime and Jenny break into Kord Tower to retrieve a smartwatch that once belonged to Jenny's father Ted, but are attacked by Victoria's bodyguard Ignacio Carapax, who has an OMAC prototype infused in his body. The Scarab, revealed to be named Khaji-Da, temporarily takes over Jaime's body and battles Carapax. Rudy and Jenny help incapacitate Carapax, then escape with Jaime to Jenny's childhood home.
Jenny uses Ted's watch to activate his secret laboratory, and reveals to Jaime that Ted was originally a vigilante named Blue Beetle who spent his life studying Khaji-Da before mysteriously disappearing, leaving his company in Victoria's hands. When they notice Victoria's helicopter flying toward Jaime's home, Jaime summons Khaji-Da and returns to protect his family. As they escape, Jaime's father Alberto suffers a cardiac arrest, distracting Jaime and allowing Carapax to capture him as he dies. Jaime is taken to an island fortress in Cuba, where he is strapped to a machine that downloads information from Khaji-Da to the OMACs. While unconscious, Jaime sees a vision from his father who encourages him to embrace his destiny as the new Blue Beetle. Jaime awakens and escapes as Carapax's OMAC suit activates and evolves into a more powerful form.
Jenny and the Reyes family use Ted's Bugship and its weapons arsenal to storm the island. Jaime reunites with his family, then encounters Carapax and battles him. Jaime nearly kills Carapax before Khaji-Da reveals to Jaime memories of Carapax's enslavement by Victoria for the OMAC experiments, including Carapax's mother's death at Victoria's hands, leading to Jaime to spare him. Carapax rebels against Victoria and sets his OMAC suit to explode, destroying the island as well as himself, taking Victoria with him as vengeance for his mother. As the Reyes family escapes from the island, they take time to mourn Alberto.
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In the aftermath, Jenny becomes the new CEO of Kord Industries and promises to repair the damage caused to the Reyes family, helping them rebuild their home. As the neighbors gather around the remains of the Reyes family's home and provide support, Jaime shares a kiss with Jenny, then offers to fly her to the Kord Estate.
In a mid-credits scene, a distorted recording from Ted is broadcast in his laboratory, attempting to inform Jenny that he is alive.
Development
Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Films were developing a film based on Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle by the end of November 2018, with Mexican-born Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer writing the screenplay. Zev Foreman was executive producing the project for Warner Bros., which was set to be the first DC Extended Universe film as well as the first live-action superhero film starring a Latino lead. By December 2020, DC Films was planning to release several mid-budget films a year exclusively on the streaming service HBO Max, rather than in theaters, as part of new DC Films president Walter Hamada's plan for the DCEU, with Blue Beetle listed as one such project in 2021.[20] Puerto Rican director Angel Manuel Soto was hired to direct the film in February 2021. During a call received from Warner Bros., Soto had pitched various ideas, including a film about Bane's origin story, but Warner Bros. had intended for him to direct a film based on Reyes' Blue Beetle. In April, Blue Beetle was included on DC's slate of films that were expected to be released in 2022 or 2023. John Rickard, the president of production at the Safran Company, was producing the film for HBO Max by that August, when filming was expected to begin in early 2022. In December 2021, Warner Bros. revealed that the film would be receiving a theatrical release in August 2023 instead of being produced directly for HBO Max; Though the film was originally intended to be released as an HBO Max exclusive, the studio decided to release it theatrically after they enjoyed Soto's creative vision. In mid-April 2022, Soto and cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski visited El Paso, Texas, to meet with local artists, muralists, musicians, and historians to understand the feel of the city. Peter Safran was revealed as a producer that October, and worked on the film until he became the co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios alongside James Gunn the next month; Rickard and Foreman were credited as the producers.
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Writing
In October 2021, Soto said Dunnet-Alcocer's script featured "the Latino family at its core", while star Xolo Maridueña said in August 2022 that the family aspect of the film and character were "inherent to the comics" and felt had not been explored as much with other superhero films. Soto did not want the film to be "another story where 15 minutes in, something happens, and 50 minutes later, he's dominating the experience, and by the end, he's saving the world" and instead wanted to explore his growth, saying that "He's [Reyes] not going to save the world yet; he doesn't deserve to yet". Soto and Dunnet-Alcocer had decided to do so by taking a grounded approach towards his character while exploring his relationship with his family and Khaji-Da, the symbotic alien that provides Reyes's powers. Soto also took inspiration from the The New 52 comics, the Mission: Impossible and Indiana Jones franchises. The film also features Reyes's family witnessing his first transformation into Blue Beetle. The intention was twofold, as Soto had amusingly felt Latino families were "very nosy" while also showing that "family is our superpower to some extent". He also described Reyes' transformation as being "[David] Cronenberg for kids" and wanted the film to be "fun". He also focused on the pronunciation of names in the film, and included a scene in which Victoria Kord called an employee Sanchez despite it not being his name. The decision to include the scene was to show that "Latinos are not a monolith", with Soto further adding that the audience would feel the "warmth" of Reyes' family and become familiarized with them after the first act. Fellow star Susan Sarandon revealed the following month that the film would have several scenes spoken in Spanish, with subtitles being provided. Soto affirmed this, saying the film would feature "Spanglish", saying Spanish will be used for scenes that feature elder characters and also when characters "speak from the heart". The final writing credits were given to Dunnet-Alcocer, with off-screen additional literary credit given to Gary Dauberman. Soto had also stated that the film would explore Victoria Kord's relationship with her brother Ted Kord. He had also stated that the presence of Ted's daughter, his gadgets, and the "idea" of Ted and Dan Garrett would also impact the film's story, although it would be contextualized through Reyes's perspective.
The film is set in the fictional Palmera City, which was an original creation for the film, rather than El Paso, Texas as is featured in the comics. Soto said this was to create a world specific to Jaime Reyes on a similar level to Metropolis for Superman and Gotham City for Batman, and to help position the character as "a potential leader" in the new DC-based franchise the DC Universe, while stating that Gunn and Safran felt that the film could be included anywhere in the DCU timeline. Soto had explained that the creative team had created the city as a "metropolitan of Latinos", and that the city was divided into two parts: Reyes's neighborhood and the affluent financial district. He had also identified Reyes's upbringing as being more "humble", as his family had come from the working class, had been struggling, and was also a part of "marginalized communities under the threat of gentrification". Inspiration for the film came from the video game Injustice 2 (2017) and the comic book storyline "Infinite Crisis" (2005–2006), in which Jaime Reyes debuted, along with the comics in The New 52 for the design of the suit, while the comic book miniseries Blue Beetle: Graduation Day (2022–2023) incorporated elements from the film.
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Casting
Xolo Maridueña was Soto's first choice to portray Reyes, with Soto explaining that he "couldn't stop seeing [Maridueña] as the character" since he was hired to direct the film, enjoying his performance in Cobra Kai. He also noted that his experience with martial arts while filming Cobra Kai would help with his role as Blue Beetle. Soto and Warner Bros. offered the role to Maridueña on August 1, 2021, he was publicly revealed to be in talks for the film the next day, and his casting was officially confirmed later that day at the premiere for the DCEU film The Suicide Squad (2021). When learning of the role, Maridueña was most excited that Reyes is a Latino character and he could bring Latino representation to a superhero project.
In early March 2022, Bruna Marquezine was cast as Reyes's love interest, Jenny Kord, with Belissa Escobedo playing Reyes's sister Milagros, and Harvey Guillén cast as Dr. Sanchez. Later that month, the rest of Reyes's family was cast: George Lopez as uncle Rudy, Adriana Barraza as Nana, Elpidia Carrillo as Rocio, and Damián Alcázar as Alberto. Soto said he wanted to create an authentic Mexican family with real accents and experiences, and also wanted the elder members of the family to be portrayed by "beloved" Mexican actors from Latin American cinema who had also crossed over to United States cinema and paved the way for members of the younger generation, such as Maridueña and Escobedo. By the end of the same month, Sharon Stone was in talks to play the villain Victoria Kord, an original creation for the film which was believed to be the wife of Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle in the comics. Raoul Trujillo also joined the cast then as Carapax the Indestructible Man. In mid-April 2022, Susan Sarandon was cast as Victoria Kord after negotiations with Stone ended. In June 2023, Becky G announced that she would be providing the voice of Khaji-Da for the film.
Design
Blue Beetle's suit was designed by Mayes C. Rubeo and the team from Nine B Collective. The design team was inspired from his appearance in Infinite Crisis #3, the Injustice games, Young Justice, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. They had difficulty in creating the mask to fit Maridueña's full face but also allow him to be emotive, particularly for the mouth area. As such, the team had decided to merge the designs of organic alien technology and insectoid features within his suit. Visual inspiration for Palmera City came from Akira (1988), Neo Tokyo (1987), and Miami. Soto decided to insert a Nintendo Power Glove for Blue Beetle following the inclusion of a shield in the script.
Filming
Principal photography began by May 25, 2022, taking place in the Atlanta metropolitan area, primarily at Wilder Studios in Decatur, Georgia, using the working title Mofongo. Pawel Pogorzelski served as the cinematographer. Scenes for the film's third act took place at the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, a 500-year-old Spanish fortress located in the Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Filming also occurred in El Paso. Sarandon completed filming her scenes by the end of June, and Trujillo said in early July that filming was almost complete. Filming wrapped on July 18 in Puerto Rico. Two days of additional photography took place in February 2023.
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Filming was done mainly at location and with heavy use of practical effects, such as the Blue Beetle suit. Soto felt that the use of real-life locations allowed for the practical effects to be better integrated into the movie. He said he wanted to prevent the film from rellying too heavily on visual effects, which he described as "a tool, not a dependency", to avoid overworking the visual effect artists.
Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle:
A recent college graduate who gains superpowers when an alien scarab grafts onto him, forming a powerful reconfiguring exoskeleton around his body.
Adriana Barraza as Nana: Jaime's grandmother
Damián Alcázar as Alberto Reyes: Jaime's father
Elpidia Carrillo as Rocio Reyes: Jaime's mother
Bruna Marquezine as Jenny Kord: The daughter of Ted Kord, and Jaime's love interest. Isabella Aparicio portrays a younger Jenny.
Raoul Max Trujillo as Ignacio Carapax / OMAC: A bodyguard working for Victoria Kord. Ayden Rivera portrays a child Carapax while Xol Gonzalez portrays a teen Carapax.
Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord:
A businesswoman and the sister of Ted Kord who is hellbent on acquiring the Scarab. Sarandon says Victoria represents the theme of "imperialism in the name of democracy", and that she is driven by a need to be ambitious and prove herself, after her brother mysteriously disappears and leaves his company behind.
George Lopez as Rudy Reyes: Jaime's uncle
Also starring in the movie are: Belissa Escobedo as Milagro Reyes, Jaime's younger sister; Harvey Guillén as Dr. Jose Francisco Morales Rivera de la Cruz / "Sanchez", a scientist who works for Victoria; and Becky G as the voice of Khaji-Da, an entity that imbues and controls the Scarab. An uncredited actor portrays Ted Kord in a voice-only cameo appearance in the mid-credits scene.
Editing and visual effects
Craig Alpert serves as the film's editor, while Kelvin McIlwain serves as the visual effects supervisor, after previously working on the DCEU films Aquaman (2018) and The Suicide Squad (2021). Visual effects vendors included Digital Domain, Rise FX, Rodeo FX, and Industrial Light & Magic.
Music
Bobby Krlic was confirmed to score the film by the trailer's release in April 2023. A soundtrack album featuring his score was released by WaterTower Music on August 18, 2023; a song from the soundtrack, "Blue Beetle Suite", was released as a single on August 11.
All music is composed by Bobby Krlic, except where noted.
