'Blue Beetle' Trailer

With new DC bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran charting their fresh take on adaptations of DC movies, the fate of some DC Extended Universe holdovers seems sealed. Whether or not ‘Blue Beetle’ ends up justifying a place in that future remains to be seen, but it has a first trailer online.

Xolo Mariduena as Jaime Reyes in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure 'Blue Beetle,' a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/™ & © DC Comics. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved. TM & © DC.

What’s the story of ‘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 Blue Beetle.

For the movie, ‘Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña is playing Jaime, and the cast also features George Lopez (as Jaime’s uncle), Adriana Barraza, Elpidia Carrillo, Damián Alcázar, Belissa Escobedo, Bruna Marquezine, Susan Sarandon and ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ stalwart Harvey Guillén.

‘Charm City Kings’ director Angel Manuel Soto oversaw the new movie, with Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer writing the script.

Who is this Blue Beetle?

While DC comics fans have known about the character for years, he has far less awareness among general movie fans. In case you need to know, here are the basics..,.

Originally created by artist Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski and writer Will Eisner for Fox Comics' ‘Mystery Men’ Comics in 1939, Blue Beetle was introduced as Dan Garret, a vigilante who fought crime using powers gained from chemical compound Vitamin 2-X, though that origin was later retconned to an archeologist with a suit and abilities derived from the alien Khaji Da scarab living weapon. He was succeeded by tech whizz Ted Kord, first appearing in Charlton Comics (which bought Fox and was itself later taken over by DC).

The Jaime Reyes version, a creation of Keith Giffen, John Rogers and Cully Hamner for 2006’s ‘Infinite Crisis' Issue #5, spawned a titular title two months later in May of that year. In his story, Reyes discovered the Blue Beetle scarab on the way home from school with two of his best friends Paco and Brenda, half-buried in a disused lot. Reyes took the scarab home, curious as to what it might be. That night, the scarab came alive, and grafted itself to the base of Jaime’s spine, and provided him with a suit of extraterrestrial armor, which can be modified to enhance his speed and strength, as well as to create weapons, wings, and shields.

Those are certainly present and correct in the new trailer, which looks to throw a lot of elements of other superhero movies into a blender and hit the button.

Maridueña has proved he has the charm to carry something like this, and it’s a solid step forward for Latino representation in comic book movies, but there is the creeping worry that the movie –– originally designed to be released via HBO Max, doesn’t look quite as polished as some of its DCEU legacy brethren or even some MCU entries.

Still, we’ll see how it works out when ‘Blue Beetle’ arrives in theaters on August 18th.