Credit: DC StudiosThe buzz for Blue Beetle continues to grow as early positive critic reviews have softened a “superhero fatigued” fanbase. This new DC movie is a sorely needed win for Warner Bros., especially after the underperforming results of Black Adam and Shazam: Fury of the Gods. The director, Ángel Manuel Soto, has been candid about his experience with this project. His candor has been refreshing for the public, but stressful at times for the filmmaker. The spotlight has been directly on him as he has been campaigning without his cast due to the Actors and Writers’ strikes.
Soto’s promotions for Blue Beetle have been entertaining because of his genuine responses to making the superhero blockbuster. In previous interviews, he admitted that Blue Beetle was not even his first choice to direct. He went to Warner Bros. to pitch a DC villain movie.
Next, the indie filmmaker would go onto divulge that a critically acclaimed video game inspired most of the movie’s epic fight sequences. He even included homages to Mega Man‘s blaster and the buster sword from Final Fantasy. Now, as the movie draws closer to its theatrical debut, Soto is hitting viewers with more delightful truth bombs.
Blue Beetle has faced an up-and-down battle as the “changing of the guard” was being sorted at Warner Bros. The studio originally chose to invest the DC Universe to 300 director, Zack Snyder. Yet, when his creative vision did not rake in Marvel Studios-like financial returns or fan reception, they severely changed this cinematic universe in tone, direction and cohesiveness. Unfortunately, this led to further backlash from countless critics and fans.
So when the newly assembled Warner Bros. Discovery executives chose to hit the reset button on this viable brand, they hired James Gunn and Peter Safran to be the CEOs of DC Studios. This would lead to a major culling of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), which would then be remade into the DC Universe or DCU. This transition occurred right as Soto was developing Blue Beetle.
This would put the movie in a gray area and Soto was unsure if the movie would even have a future after cancellations like with the Batgirl movie. However, after viewing the initial footage of the film, Gunn decided to anoint Blue Beetle as the first superhero of the new DCU. The director expressed that this news was a relief as, “All of this effort was not going to die during this regime change.”
Soto has been on a rollercoaster-like experience as he went into pitch a different movie, then made a film that was originally a straight-to-streaming project, which would turn into a theatrical release. Next, it remained in limbo during the WB regime change and now the official premiere is tomorrow. Soto confessed that Blue Beetle‘s debut is bittersweet because he cannot share in its triumph with the other cast members, who worked tirelessly. He feels they deserve to represent their Latino community with the release of DC first Latino superhero.
Blue Beetle is set be officially released this Friday, August 18, 2023, with earlier theatrical screenings available tonight.