Blue Beetle

Discover Everything We Spotted in Blue Beetle’s Exciting New Trailer

Jaime Reyes is set to introduce a new hero into the DC Universe, and his movie trailer also has some intriguing connections to Blue Beetle’s comics past.

Today DC and Warner Bros. gave us first look at Blue Beetle, Angel Manuel Soto’s former HBO Max exclusive superhero movie that’s now set to become one of DC’s big movies in its strange transitory universe phase. Despite its odd placement within DC’s slate, Blue Beetle manages to make an impressive first impression as well as provide us with some intriguing hints and details in its debut trailer.

DC’s Blue Beetle Trailer Is Here with a Fun, Family-Oriented Superhero Origin Story

The next new hero of the DC Universe has arrived and brought his entire family along for the journey.

Warner Bros. recently released the first trailer for Blue Beetle, starring Xolo Mariduena, George Lopez and Susan Sarandon that looks to be an exciting adventure. Directed by Angel Manuel Soto, it marks the first time Jaime Reyes is seen in live-action–though originally going straight to HBO Max, the studio decided that Jaime Reyes’ story needed to be told on the big screen as well.

Blue Beetle was deeply rooted in family, which was a key aspect for its filmmakers.

Though Jamie Reyes and his family are the focal point of Blue Beetle in the film, Soto has chosen not to focus solely on Reyes’ version of the character. While Reyes may be the most recent iteration, previous Blue Beetles include Dan Garrett and Ted Kord too. Soto described his approach to Blue Beetle less as a direct adaptation of Reyes’ tale, and more like an eclectic “greatest hits” compilation of cool Blue Beetle moments from all takes on the character.

Blue Beetle’s Solo Movie Is Long Overdue

Over the weekend, Warner Bros. confirmed that its Blue Beetle movie would indeed be released. A debut poster featuring Jaime Reyes as Xolo Mariduena in its alien Scarab suit capped off an exciting weekend as we eagerly await for more information about what can be expected from Jaime Reyes (Xolo Mariduena)’ first live-action film role.

DC Comics has many teenage superheroes in its stable, but Jaime is one that the company has struggled to figure out how best to use. Created in 2006 by Keith Giffen, Cully Hamner and John Rogers, Jaime has had difficulty connecting with audiences – sometimes getting his own solo comic, other times appearing as a guest star or appearing as part of someone else’s story before eventually opting out altogether. It’s difficult to pinpoint why exactly this is given his compelling hook of being an amalgamation of Iron Man and Venom.

Even without that background, Jamie is an important character in his own right. Plenty of superhero movies lately have made headlines for being “firsts” in some capacity–such as being the first movie from DC Extended Universe with a Latino lead–but Jaime also stands to benefit from its existence as an iconic teenager who helped pave the way for young heroes in today’s cape era. Even if he wasn’t the first teenager to take up that mantle already established by Marvel or DC, his presence helped pave the way for future young heroes like him to gain recognition within society.

Characters like Kamala Khan and Miles Morales arrived at precisely the right moment when comics began making more overt attempts at diversity, serving as potential beta testing grounds for future franchise potential. Even if it wasn’t explicitly stated, you could tell by looking at their designs–which addressed both superhero comics’ diversity issues as well as creating diverse superheroes who could headline or feature prominently in blockbuster tentpole movies. It was a program Marvel adopted during the 2010s that DC only recently adopted with their “Future State” comics and new versions of heroes born out of that event.

Jaime arrived before the current wave of diversity began. While his debut back in 2006 wasn’t particularly noteworthy, one can imagine how he could’ve done better had he debuted six or seven years later. Just like DC decided to upgrade Harley Quinn and Cyborg to A-listers, so could Jaime. After all, Warner Bros. announced they were making a Blue Beetle movie back in 2018.

DC’s defense is that Jaime has managed to carve out a place for himself in the public spotlight – it just took more time than Harley or Cyborg did. Away from all the attention that came with being part of DCEU drama, Jaime has created his own niche through animation and video games. Young Justice made him one of its primary leads for its sophomore season, and he also appeared as a recurring character on Batman: The Brave & The Bold at around the same time. DC’s animated movie slate during the 2010s saw him appear in its Teen Titans movies (he was part of their team in comics during late ’00s) and serve as one of its launch characters for Injustice 2. This has likely been for the better–now his film can exist as its own entity.

With this movie and the recently released Blue Beetle: Graduation Day comic, DC should take advantage of Jaime’s momentum and do more with him. His character has gone through too much in recent years for them to let this opportunity pass him by.