The DCU has been a mess lately, with virtually all its recent movies underperforming at the box office – Black Adam, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, and The Flash. Hopefully the next film on the menu, Blue Beetle, will turn things around. If that would only depend on the coolness of the character’s outfit, chances would be pretty good according to the star.
The Flash tanked so badly that the studio decided to end its theatrical run 30 days after its debut and release it on digital platforms in July, two months earlier than originally planned. As such, a lot is riding on the success of this upcoming film starring a hero that isn’t as well known as the mainline members of the Justice League.
The next DC film in the pipeline is Blue Beetle, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s top brass will be hoping it toes a different line. Regardless of what happens, Blue Beetle will provide audiences with the coolest suit in superhero history, at least according to star Xolo Maridueña.
Maridueña aired his thought on the superhero character’s suit when he and the film’s director, Angel Manuel Soto, sat down for an interview with Empire. The 22-year-old was unreserved in his praise of the outfit, which is often a superhero’s most recognizable trait.
He told Empire, “The suit is just incredible. It’s the coolest suit there is. After watching the movie and seeing the CGI, I was like, ‘Alright, now it’s set in stone. It’s the coolest suit.” This should give fans hope, since typically CGI-heavy suits have not fared well.
Although Blue Beetle was greenlit under the former leadership of DC Studio, James Gunn and Peter Safran have handpicked it as the film that will mark the beginning of their time at the company’s helm. There are even two sequels planned, which is more than we can say for any other film from the old era, most of which have been scrapped.
That said, even the best-laid plans sometimes crumble. If Blue Beetle continues the recent trend of DC films bombing at the box office, we doubt the studio will be motivated to make any further investment in it.
Manuel Soto, the film’s director, also had something to say. He told Empire that, in making Blue Beetle, they aimed to create a film that was “as grounded as possible” with dangers that directly affected the character and felt personal.
In his words, “We wanted him first to be the hero of his family and his area and his community, before he becomes the hero of the world. Before he becomes the hero of the universe. We didn’t want him to save the planet from alien destruction on the first one.”
With more and more superhero films doing a competition of who can invent the biggest danger, we think Manuel Soto’s choice is an interesting one. His decision to focus on danger to the character and his family is a departure from the norm, and it makes the film worth seeing if only to confirm whether he pulls it off.
The upcoming film will be the titular character’s big-screen debut. Even though it has long existed on the pages of comic books, it has never quite made the leap to television, unlike its more established counterparts.
Blue Beetle will debut in theaters on August 17.
