With a widely diversifying marketplace, studios are also working to diversify their superhero slates, especially after the massive success of Black Panther with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on the way. DC is now working to get the first Latino superhero lead to screens with Blue Beetle. The Wrap reports that Charm City Kingsdirector Angel Manuel Soto is set to direct the film from a script by Mexican-born screenwriter Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, who previously wrote the remake of Miss Bala.
“It is an honor to direct Blue Beetle, the first Latino superhero film for DC,” said Soto in a statement to TheWrap. “I want to sincerely thank everyone at Warner Bros. and DC for trusting me to bring Jaime Reyes to life. I can’t wait to make history together.”
While Blue Beetle first came into existence in 1939, Soto will be working on an incarnation of the character that came out of the Infinite Crisis event in May 2006. Jaime Reyes is a working class El Paso teenager with no connection to prior Blue Beetles. His origin in the comics involves finding the Blue Beetle scarab on the way home from school, and at night the scarab came alive, grafted itself to Reyes’ spine, and gave him a suit of armor that provides enhanced speed and strength as well as other abilities like weapons and shields.
As a big fan of Charm City Kings, I’m happy that Soto now gets to try his hand at a superhero franchise, and I’m glad that DC is working to bring Blue Beetle to the big screen. It’s important to remember that DC also has a massive stable of characters, and not every film needs to be connected to a Justice League member.
Production on Blue Beetle is aiming for a fall start. You can currently catch Charm City Kings on HBO Max.