‘Blue Beetle’: James Gunn Teases Jaime Reyes’ Future in DCU
Only two months after we watched ‘The Flash,’ a DC movie that was promising so much but delivered so little, it’s time for another DC movie to come out, as well as another hope that it can pull off a decent commercial result at least. ‘Blue Beetle’ was initially announced as the streaming movie for HBOMax alongside ‘Batgirl,’ before ‘Batgirl’ was scrapped, and ‘Blue Beetle’ was changed to have a regular theatrical release. The movie’s opening weekend is now upon us, and we’re honestly anxious to find out how the movie will do during the opening weekend.
One of the reasons that DCEU movies have fallen into a series of commercial flops is due to the fact that James Gunn, a new co-CEO of DC Studios, announced that DCEU will be ended this year after the release of ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,’ and in July 2025, a new soft-reboot franchise, called DCU, will kick off with his ‘Superman: Legacy.’
The upcoming franchise is considered a soft reboot because even though some things, like Superman and Batman’s stories, will be started from the ground up with new actors, DCU will also continue some storylines and bring back some DCEU actors. And judging by James Gunn’s recent post on Instagram, it appears that Xolo Maridueña’s Jaime Reyes might be one of those returning characters as well.
James Gunn announces that Jaime Reyes will be a part of DCU going forward!
The whole situation about DCEU ending and DCU starting is complicated, to say the least. ‘The Flash’ was said to be the breaking point between the two franchises, but then James Gunn said that Blue Beetle will be DCU’s first superhero, although the movie is still set in DCEU, and DCU’s canon will officially kick off with Gunn’s ‘Superman: Legacy’ in July 2025. We can only wait to see what exactly Gunn has in mind here.
However, in his recent Instagram post, Gunn informed his followers how he and Peter Safran, another co-CEO of DC Studios and the producer of ‘Blue Beetle,’ have attended the movie’s screening, and he teased how Jaime Reyes, the movie’s main character, “will be an amazing part of the DCU going forward!”
James Gun previously said that Blue Beetle would be the first DCU hero, which means that the DCU timeline indeed started with the ending of ‘The Flash,’ despite the fact that DCEU will remain active until ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ releases and the fact that DCU’s canon will officially start with ‘Superman: Legacy.’
The ‘Blue Beetle’ star Xolo Maridueña previously expressed his desire to continue playing Jaime Reyes in more movies and potential crossovers, while the director Angel Manuel Soto teased that he hopes Blue Beetle might even get a trilogy. There are plenty of options, and we still don’t know how much the movie’s commercial result will affect those plans.
The ‘Blue Beetle’ movie follows a graduate Jaime Reyes as he returns to his home in Palmera City, where he encounters an alien scarab that will equip him with an exoskeleton with unique powers and abilities. As the Blue Beetle, Jaime will need to protect the city and his loved ones from a corporate villain Victoria Kord and her bodyguard Conrad Carapax, also known as the OMAC.
Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, ‘Blue Beetle’ opens in theaters on August 18, 2023.
