''Blue Beetle'' is an upcoming American

superhero film A superhero film (or superhero movie) is a film that focuses on the actions of superheroes. Superheroes are individuals who possess superhuman abilities and are dedicated to protecting the public. These films typically feature Action film, ac ...

based on the

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

character Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle. It is intended to be the 14th film in the

DC Extended Universe The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films and television series produced by DC Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on characters that ...

(DCEU). The film is directed by

Angel Manuel Soto Angel Manuel Soto (born January 28, 1983) is a Puerto Rican film director, producer, and screenwriter. Early life Angel Manuel Soto was born in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Santurce, a neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His parents wer ...

from a screenplay by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, and stars

Xolo Maridueña Xolo Maridueña (; born June 9, 2001) is an American actor. His roles include Miguel Diaz in the Netflix series ''Cobra Kai'', Victor Graham in the NBC TV series '' Parenthood'', and Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle in the upcoming DC Extended Univer ...

as Reyes alongside

Bruna Marquezine Bruna Reis Maia (born 4 August 1995), known professionally as Bruna Marquezine, is a Brazilian actress. She debuted on television in 2000 as one of the children interviewers for the children's program ''Gente Inocente''. She has already been pa ...

, Belissa Escobedo,

George Lopez George Edward Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American comedian and actor. He is known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture. Lopez has rec ...

Adriana Barraza Adriana Barraza González (born 5 March 1956) is a Mexican actress, acting teacher, and director. In 1999 director Alejandro González Iñárritu cast her as the mother of Gael García Bernal's character in '' Amores perros'', which was nomin ...

Elpidia Carrillo Elpidia Carrillo (born August 16, 1961) is a Mexican actress and director. Her career includes roles in both Latin American and US film and television. She is best known in the United States for her supporting role in the iconic action film ''Pre ...

Damián Alcázar Damián Alcázar (born January 8, 1953) is a Mexican actor and politician, who is best known outside of Mexico as Lord Sopespian in '' The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian''. He was a deputy in the Constituent Assembly of Mexico City. Caree ...

Raoul Trujillo Raoul Maximiano Trujillo de Chauvelon (born May 8, 1955) is an American and Canadian actor, dancer, choreographer, and theatre director. A former soloist with the Nikolais Dance Theatre, he is the original choreographer and co-director for the ...

, and

Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...

. It is produced by

DC Studios DC Studios is an American film and television studio that is a division of Warner Bros., which is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. It is dedicated to the production of films, series, and animations based on characters from DC Comics, am ...

Entertainment One Entertainment One Ltd., trading as eOne, is an American-owned Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of films and television se ...

, S&K Pictures, and

the Safran Company Peter Safran (born 22 November 1965) is a British-American film producer and manager. He currently serves as the co-chairperson and CEO of DC Studios alongside James Gunn. Early life After growing up in the UK, Safran graduated from Princeton Un ...

, and set for distribution by

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of liv ...

, Development of a film featuring Reyes began by the end of November 2018 with Dunnet-Alcocer attached. Soto was hired to direct the film in February 2021 for the streaming service

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

. Maridueña was cast that August, and the film was changed to have a theatrical release in December. Further casting took place in early 2022, before filming took place from late May to mid-July in the

Atlanta metropolitan area Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...

at Wilder Studios in

Decatur, Georgia Decatur is a city in, and the county seat of, DeKalb County, Georgia, which is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. With a population of 24,928 in the 2020 census, the municipality is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple ZIP Codes in ...

, as well as in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

and

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

. ''Blue Beetle'' is scheduled to be released in the United States on August 18, 2023.

Cast

as Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle: A teenager who gains superpowers when an

alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

Blue Beetle Blue Beetle is the name of three fictional superheroes who appear in a number of American comic books published by a variety of companies since 1939. The most recent of the companies to own rights to Blue Beetle is DC Comics, which bought the ri ...

scarab grafts onto him, forming a powerful

exoskeleton An exoskeleton (from Greek ''éxō'' "outer" and ''skeletós'' "skeleton") is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to an internal skeleton (endoskeleton) in for example, a human. In usage, some of the ...

around his body. *

as Penny: Jaime's love interest. * Belissa Escobedo as Milagros Reyes: Jaime's younger sister. *

as Rudy: Jaime's uncle. *

as Nana *

as Rocio *

as Alberto *

as Carapax the Indestructible Man *

as Victoria Kord Additionally,

Harvey Guillén Javier "Harvey" Guillén (; born ) is an American actor who is best known for his role as the human familiar Guillermo de la Cruz in the 2019 television series ''What We Do in the Shadows''. Career Guillén has appeared in recurring roles on a ...

has been cast in an undisclosed role.

Production

Development

and

DC Films DC Studios is an American film and television studio that is a division of Warner Bros., which is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. It is dedicated to the production of films, series, and animations based on characters from DC Comics, am ...

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., which was set to be the first

(DCEU) 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

, rather than in theaters, as part of new DC Films president

Walter Hamada Walter Hamada is an American film executive and producer. He joined New Line Cinema in 2007, where he served as an executive producer on horror films such as '' The Conjuring'' (2013), '' Annabelle'' (2014), ''The Conjuring 2'' (2016), '' Lights ...

's plan for the DCEU, with ''Blue Beetle'' listed as one such project in 2021. Puerto Rican

was hired to direct the film in February 2021. In April, ''Blue Beetle'' was included on DC's slate of films that were expected to be released in 2022 or 2023. John Rickard 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. In mid-April 2022, Soto and cinematographer

Pawel Pogorzelski Pawel Pogorzelski (born 1979) is a Polish-born Canadian cinematographer, known for his work with director Ari Aster. Pogorzelski was born in 1979 in Włocławek, Poland but moved to Montreal with his family when he was 2. He studied at Concordia U ...

visited

, to meet with local artists, muralists, musicians, and historians to understand the feel of the city.

Peter Safran Peter Safran (born 22 November 1965) is a British-American film producer and manager. He currently serves as the co-chairperson and CEO of DC Studios alongside James Gunn. Early life After growing up in the UK, Safran graduated from Princeton Un ...

also serves as a producer.

, S&K Pictures, and

co-produce the film alongside DC Films.

Writing

In October 2021, Soto said Dunnet-Alcocer's script featured "the Latino family at its core", while star

said in August 2022 that the family aspect of the film and character were "inherent to the comics" and felt had not been explored as much with other superhero films. Fellow star

revealed the following month that the film would have several scenes spoken in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

, with subtitles being provided. The final writing credits were given to Dunnet-Alcocer, with off-screen additional literary credit given to

Gary Dauberman Gary Dauberman is an American screenwriter and director. He is known for writing The Conjuring Universe horror films '' Annabelle'' (2014), '' Annabelle: Creation'' (2017), '' The Nun'' (2018), and ''Annabelle Comes Home'' (2019). He made his dir ...

Casting

Xolo Maridueña was Soto's first choice to portray Reyes, with Soto explaining that he "couldn't stop seeing aridueñaas the character" since he was hired to direct the film. Soto and Warner Bros. offered the role to Maridueña on August 1, 2021, he was publicly revealed to be in talks for the film the next day, and his casting was officially confirmed later that day at the premiere for the DCEU film '' The Suicide Squad''. When learning of the role, Maridueña was most excited that Reyes is a Latino character and he could bring Latino representation to a superhero project. In early March,

was cast as Reyes's love interest, Penny, with Belissa Escobedo playing Reyes's sister Milagros, and

cast in an undisclosed role. Later that month, the rest of Reyes's family was cast:

as uncle Rudy,

as Nana,

as Rocio, and

as Alberto. Soto said he wanted to create an authentic Mexican family with real accents and experiences, and also wanted the elder members of the family to be portrayed by "beloved" Mexican actors from

Latin American cinema Latin American cinema refers collectively to the film output and film industry, film industries of Latin America. Latin American film is both rich and diverse, but the main centers of production have been Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Latin Americ ...

who had also crossed over to United States cinema and paved the way for members of the younger generation, such as Maridueña and Escobedo. By the end of March,

Sharon Stone Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress. Known for primarily playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the recipient of various ...

was in talks to play the villain Victoria Kord, an original creation for the film which was believed to be the wife of

Ted Kord Theodore Stephen "Ted" Kord is the second Blue Beetle, a superhero who was originally published by Charlton Comics and later picked up by DC Comics. This version of the character was created by Steve Ditko and first appeared as a back-up feature ...

, the second

in the comics.

also joined the cast then as Carapax the Indestructible Man. In mid-April, Susan Sarandon was cast as Victoria Kord after negotiations with Stone ended.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began by May 25, 2022, taking place in the

, primarily at Wilder Studios in

, using the

working title A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...

''Mofongo''.

served as the cinematographer. Filming also occurred in El Paso and

. Sarandon completed filming her scenes by the end of June, and Trujillo said in early July that filming was almost complete. Filming wrapped on July 18 in Puerto Rico.

Marketing

Soto, Dunnet-Alcocer, and Maridueña promoted the film at the virtual

DC FanDome DC FanDome is a virtual event platform created by DC Comics and Warner Bros. Entertainment. Created initially as a virtual entertainment and comic book convention, the name is used for other online events centered on DC properties. The events f ...

event in October 2021, where they discussed their preparation for filming and revealed concept art for the film.

Release

''Blue Beetle'' is scheduled for theatrical release in the United States on August 18, 2023. A screening in El Paso is also planned. It was originally intended to be an HBO Max exclusive original streaming film.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Film, United States, Speculative fiction, Comics 2020s American films 2020s English-language films 2020s Spanish-language films 2023 action films 2023 films American coming-of-age films American science fiction films American superhero films DC Extended Universe films Entertainment One films Films produced by Peter Safran Films set in Texas Films shot in Atlanta Films shot in El Paso, Texas Films shot in Puerto Rico Live-action films based on DC Comics Mexican-American films Teen superhero films Upcoming films Warner Bros. films