Blue Beetle (film)

Blue Beetle is a 2023 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle. Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, it is the 14th film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Xolo Maridueña stars as Reyes, a recent college graduate who is granted superpowers by an ancient alien relic known as the Scarab. Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, and George Lopez also star in the film. John Rickard and Zev Foreman produced the film for DC Films and Warner Bros. Pictures.

Development of a film featuring the Jaime Reyes version of Blue Beetle began by the end of November 2018, with Dunnet-Alcocer attached as screenwriter. 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, and filming lasted from late May to mid-July at Wilder Studios in Decatur, Georgia, as well as in El Paso, Texas, and Puerto Rico. It is the first live-action superhero film with a Latino lead.

Blue Beetle premiered in El Paso on August 14, 2023, and was released in the United States on August 18. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and became the most-watched film on the streaming service Max (formerly HBO Max) in the United States. Nevertheless, the film underperformed at the box office, grossing $130.8 million worldwide against a production budget of $104–125 million, which made it the lowest-grossing film in the DCEU. Its box office performance was attributed to factors such as the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes, the franchise's imminent reboot with the DC Universe (DCU), and Hurricane Hilary. An animated follow-up series set in the DCU is in development.

Plot

In Antarctica, members of Kord Industries, led by its co-founder and CEO Victoria Kord, 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 at Victoria's mansion. However, both are fired after Jaime stops 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".

The next day, Jenny finds that Victoria is using the Scarab for her One Man Army Corps (OMAC) 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, and when Jaime holds the Scarab, it activates and fuses with him, encasing him in an exoskeleton. After getting launched from the stratosphere to all over the city, Jaime tracks down Jenny for answers, rescuing her from Victoria's armed forces. She tells Jaime that the Scarab is a sentient weapon and has chosen Jaime as 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, but Jaime refuses to let it kill Carapax. Rudy and Jenny help incapacitate Carapax, before they escape with Jaime to Jenny's childhood home.

Jenny uses Ted's watch to activate his secret laboratory and reveals that Ted was 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, but Jaime's father, Alberto, collapses and dies from a heart attack, distracting Jaime and allowing Carapax and Victoria to capture him. Jaime is taken to an island fortress near Cuba, where he is strapped to a machine that downloads information from Khaji-Da into the OMACs. While unconscious, Jaime experiences a vision from Alberto in the afterlife, who encourages him to embrace his destiny as the new Blue Beetle.

While Jenny and the Reyes family use Ted's Bugship and its weapons arsenal to storm the island, Jaime awakens and escapes as Carapax's OMAC suit evolves into a more powerful form. Jaime reunites with his family, then encounters Carapax and battles him. After Carapax shoots at Rudy when he aids his nephew, Jaime nearly kills Carapax out of rage but is stopped by Khaji-Da, who shows him Carapax's memories obtained through the information download, from which Jaime learns of Carapax's tragic past, including his enslavement by Victoria for the OMAC experiments and the inadvertent death of his mother at her hands. Moved by this revelation, Jaime spares Carapax, who is prompted to turn on Victoria and sets his OMAC suit to explode and destroy the island, himself, and Victoria, as vengeance for his mother. As the Reyes family escapes the island, they finally take time to mourn Alberto.

In the aftermath, Jenny becomes the new CEO of Kord Industries and promises to repair the damage caused to the Reyes family by helping them rebuild their home. As the neighbors gather around the remains of the Reyes family's home and provide support, Jaime kisses Jenny and then offers to fly her to the Kord Estate. In a mid-credits scene, a distorted recording is broadcast in Ted's laboratory, attempting to inform Jenny he is alive.

Cast

• 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, who is a former revolutionary.
• 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.
• Raoul Max Trujillo as Ignacio Carapax / OMAC: A lieutenant and bodyguard working for Victoria Kord.
• Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord:
  The CEO of Kord Industries 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.
• Belissa Escobedo as Milagro Reyes: Jaime's younger sister
• Harvey Guillén as Dr. Jose Francisco Morales Rivera de la Cruz / "Dr. Sanchez": A scientist who works for Victoria.

Additionally, Becky G provides the voice of Khaji-Da, a sentient entity that imbues and controls the Scarab, while Bobby McGruther has a voice-only cameo as Ted Kord, a previous Blue Beetle, in the mid-credits scene.

Production

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., and it was set to be the first DC Extended Universe (DCEU) 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 movie 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. Puerto Rican director Ángel Manuel Soto was hired to direct the film in February 2021. He had pitched various ideas, including a film about the Batman character Bane's origin story, when contacted by Warner Bros., but the studio had intended for him to direct the Blue Beetle film. In April, Blue Beetle was included on DC's slate of films that were expected to be released in 2022 or 2023. Soto explained that while the decision to release Blue Beetle on streaming was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on the availability of movie theaters, the creative team intended to make the film suited for a theatrical experience.

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, having worked on the film before he was hired as the co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios alongside James Gunn that month; Rickard and Foreman were ultimately credited as the producers.