Not many actors from the DC Extended Universe made the cut when James Gunn started rebooting things for his new DC Universe. In fact, you could count the returning names on one hand—John Cena’s Peacemaker and Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller being among the most familiar faces sticking around. That’s why it came as a bit of a surprise when Xolo Maridueña’s Blue Beetle also made the leap into the rebooted universe.
While Blue Beetle managed to slightly edge past its production budget—bringing in around $130.8 million globally on a reported $104 to $120 million budget—it still landed as a box office disappointment by superhero standards. Even so, James Gunn remains confident in the character’s future, saying that “hardly anything” needs to be changed. He even likened Blue Beetle’s place in the new DCU to that of Peacemaker in that the transition from DCEU to DCU should be pretty seamless.
“Peacemaker was always in a weird place. People say he’s a part of the DCEU, but he wasn’t really,” Gunn explained to Rotten Tomatoes. “He was a part of this in-between universe of DC when there was nobody really making sure everything was connected, and at a time when they were going to rewrite everything with The Flash. We were kind of able to do whatever we wanted. We had that brash ending which I loved. It was one of my favorite things in the whole season, but it just didn’t fit in with the DCU.”
Gunn continued, “And Peacemaker almost – there’s hardly anything you need to change for him to slide very easily into the DCU. Same with Blue Beetle. They just kind of fit in very nicely, but maybe we have to retcon a couple of things. But this is the big one.”
2023’s Blue Beetle marked a milestone for the DC Universe as its first live-action film centered on a Latino lead, with Maridueña (of Cobra Kai fame) portraying the titular hero and his alter ego, Jaime Reyes. Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet‑Alcocer, it served as the 14th installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The story follows Jaime, a recent college graduate, who unexpectedly becomes the host of an ancient alien artifact — the Scarab. This symbiotic entity grants him a powerful, bio-mechanical suit of armor with extraordinary and unpredictable abilities, setting him on a path to become the superhero known as Blue Beetle. The film also stars Bruna Marquezine as Jenny Kord, George Lopez as Rudy Reyes, and Becky G as the voice of Khaji-Da, the Scarab’s sentient AI.
Are you looking forward to seeing how Blue Beetle is integrated into James Gunn’s new DCU? What do you think of the future of Blue Beetle in James Gunn’s DCU? Let us know in the comments.
