Warner Bros. casting is moving ahead for their DC movie, Blue Beetle, the studio’s first feature film starring a Latino character. We already knew that Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña will star as Jaime Reyes (aka, Blue Beetle) and that Charm City Kings’ Angel Manuel Soto will direct. Today, we got news via The Wrap that the movie has added three new actors to its roster.
Those three actors include newcomer Bruna Marquezine as well as Belissa Escobedo (Hocus Pocus 2) and Harvey Guillén, whose previous credits include playing Benedict Pickwick on The Magicians and the underappreciated familiar Guillermo de la Cruz in What We Do In The Shadows (pictured above).
Marquezine will be playing the female lead, Penny, who also will be Jaime/Blue Beetle’s love interest while Escobedo will play Milagros Reyes, Jaime’s sister. There’s no news yet on who Guillén is playing. Perhaps he will play a teacher or mentor of some sort at Jamie’s school? Or maybe in an interesting twist, he’ll be the villain? Given Guillén’s previous roles, however, I’m very optimistic it will be a compellingly entertaining performance no matter who he’s playing.
There have been three iterations of Blue Beetle in DC comics. This movie will focus on the latest version, where the Mexican-American teenager Jamie Reyes finds a blue beetle scarab on the way home from school. That scarab is no ordinary scarab of course—it’s alien technology! That night the scarab tech wakes up and grafts onto Jamie’s spine, giving him an exosuit of armor that also gives him super strength and speed, among other things.
With casting moving forward, it’s likely that production on the film will start sooner rather than later, especially given that the movie’s theatrical premiere date is on August 18, 2023.
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One likes what I see of this film so far – I wonder if they’ll allude to Dan Garrett & Ted Kord or go with the notion that this is the first Blue Beetle in this version of continuity? (Also, PEACEMAKER, BLUE BEETLE … I wonder if it will be CAPTAIN ATOM next or if they’ll finally have the nerve to let Mr Jeffrey Combs bring his take on the character into Live Action?*).
*Bonus points if the classic “Bite me!” “With what?” gag shows up in some form.
If they’re including Ted Kord, Harvey Guillén seems like the perfect choice.
Blue Beetle is one of my absolute favorite comics and I hope the movie does it justice.
The John Rodgers Beetle run with Jaime was one of my all-time favorite DC reads from the 2000s.
So I’m cautiously optimistic about this.