DC’s Blue Beetle Has Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Full Support,” Despite Batgirl’s Fate

The sudden cancelation of the Batgirl movie after the Warner Bros. and Discovery merger had fans speculating if other projects were heading to the same fate. The Wrap is reporting one movie, in particular, has the “full support” of the studio. The director of Blue Beetle, Angel Manuel Soto, told NPR that he said the film is completely backed by the studio.

“I’m not going to lie. There was concern, anger, fear at first,” Soto told NPR during a discussion that focused on Latino superheroes. “[Studio executives] told me not to worry, the film has their full support.”

The movie will be DC Films’ first superhero movie with a main Latino character and played by Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña as the titular role. In DC Comics, Blue Beetle is the superhero name that had been used by three different men over the span of four decades. This film will focus on Mexican-American teenager Jaime Reyes, the third character to assume the Blue Beetle mantle via alien technology and has no connection to the previous heroes.

Created by writers Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and artist Cully Hamner, Jaime was created during DC’s mega-crossover event Infinite Crisis in 2006, with a new Blue Beetle solo-series launched that May. Photos of Jamie in the Scarab armor were leaked online that feature a comic-accurate look of Hamner’s designs of the character.

Joining Maridueña will be joined by George Lopez, Adriana Barraza, Elpidia Carrillo, Damián Alcázar, Belissa Escobedo, Bruna Marquezine, and What We Do In The Shadows’ Harvey Guillén. Additionally, Raoul Max Trujillo (Mayans) will play Carapax the Indestructible Man and Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord.

Blue Beetle is set to be released on August 18, 2023.