Jaime Reyes is coming to the big screen. The Wrap is reporting that director Angel Manuel Soto is working on a Blue Beetle film based on the DC Comics character. Screenwriter Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer is writing the screenplay for the film, which would be the first movie from either DC or Marvel to feature a Latinx superhero as the headliner.
Introduced in 2005, the current Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes, is a Hispanic teenager living in El Paso, TX who discovers an alien scarab that, once bonded with him, gives him a superpowered suit of armor. The character was developed by Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner, first appearing during the Infinite Crisis event series.
The Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle has appeared in live action on-screen before, featured in an episode from the final season of Smallville in which he was played by actor Jaren Brandt Bartlett. The character also received a lot of visibility with younger audiences as a recurring guest-star on the Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon, as well as as a team member on the Young Justice animated series. Test footage for a potential live-action TV series for the character, a spin-off from his Smallville appearance, was revealed by DC back in 2010, though nothing came of the Alex Winter-directed footage.
The Blue Beetle news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that Latinx actress Sasha Calle will appear as Supergirl in the upcoming The Flash feature film. DC doesn’t have many Hispanic superheroes in its stable, and many have likened Jaime Reyes to the Miles Morales Spider-Man, so it’s no surprise that they would want to pursue bringing to the character to film sooner rather than later.
No casting or tentative release date have yet been announced for Blue Beetle.
