‘Blue Beetle’ Sequel: Will It Happen? What’s Next for Jaime Reyes?
After years of development, changing it from a streaming movie to a theatrical movie, and all that while the leadership of DC Studios has been drastically changed, the newest DC movie, ‘Blue Beetle,’ is finally opening in theaters this weekend. While the first reviews are positive and they’re highlighting the movie’s cast, emotions, light tone, and representation of Latino culture, the movie is in a pretty unthankful position since the last three DC movies have all suffered commercial failures, and DC Extended Universe will be concluded by the end of this year. In this article, we’ll talk about what are the chances that ‘Blue Beetle’ will get a sequel.
The sequel to ‘Blue Beetle’ hasn’t been officially announced yet, nor are there any rumors and reports that it might be in early development. However, the co-CEO of DC Studios, James Gunn, said that Blue Beetle is the first superhero in the canon of his DCU, a soft-reboot franchise of DCEU, and he also said that Jaime Reyes’ story will continue beyond this first movie. The director Angel Manuel Soto previously said how he believes that Blue Beetle might get a trilogy, but everything depends on the movie’s commercial result, and while numbers aren’t in its favor, there’s a chance we’ll see Maridueña as Blue Beetle again. Only time will tell.
No matter what you think about ‘Blue Beetle’ as a movie, we can all agree that the movie found itself in a situation to be released at the worst possible time. Not only because DCEU is gearing up to close its gate this December once ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ hits theaters but also because the movie is in danger of becoming another commercial failure for DC, and they already had three of them in a row. In the next few paragraphs, we’ll talk more about the sequel chances for ‘Blue Beetle’ and what we might expect from the potential sequel.
THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR ‘BLUE BEETLE’!
How ‘Blue Beetle’ sets up a potential sequel?
Similar to 2019’s ‘Shazam,’ ‘Blue Beetle’ is also a family superhero movie. It follows Jaime Reyes, who returns to Palmera City, Texas, after his college graduation. He reunites with his family, which is currently in great debt, so Jaime is forced to look for a job at Kord’s mansion with his sister. However, they’re quickly fired after Jaime tries to side with Jenny Kord while arguing with her aunt Victoria.
When Jenny promises Jaime to help him get a new job at Kord Industries, Jaime goes there the next day to look for her. However, his dream of getting a new job perishes when Jenny steals a Scarab from the lab and asks Jaime to get it out of the building. Scarab eventually chooses Jaime as his next host, and he takes over his body, turning him into a new Blue Beetle.
In the source material, Jaime Reyes is known as the third Blue Beetle, but the fans of the character will be pleased to know that the movie also mentions and contains references to both previous Blue Beetles. Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle, who is also Jenny’s father and Victoria’s sister, is presumed dead. As the story goes forward, we find out that Ted used to be Palmera City’s hero while Jaime was still a child, but since the Scarab didn’t choose Ted, he had to use his own technology for his superhero work.
After Victoria’s men attack Jaime’s house, which results in the house blowing up, Jaime’s father dying from cardiac arrest, and Jaime getting kidnapped by Victoria and Carapax. The family and Jenny team up to save Jaime using Ted’s tech and weapons while Scarab’s code is transformed into OMAC, a dangerous weaponry that Kord Industries developed under Victoria’s rule.
Carapax is ultimately defeated, and Jaime spares him after Scarab shows him what happened to Carapax when he was a kid. Realizing that Victoria is responsible for destroying his home and killing his mother, Carapax takes her back to the fortress when it blows up, and Jaime escapes with Jenny and the others on Ted’s old Beetle-like airship.
The movie ends with Jenny taking over Kord Industries and her promise that she’ll rebuild the house of Jaime and his family. Once the sparks start flying between them, Jaime and Jenny kiss, and he uses his suit to fly her back to Kord Industries. While the movie ends in a pretty regular way, pointing out that the sequel might or might not happen, the mid-credit scene shows that there’s certainly a plan to continue Blue Beetle’s story.
The mid-credit scene takes us back to Ted Kord’s Blue Beetle lair, where the computed activates, and we hear Ted Kord, who reveals that he’s still alive. So, if the sequel is already planned, it looks like we might see more than one Blue Beetle in the next movie.
What could the ‘Blue Beetle’ sequel be about?
It’s hard to definitively answer this since we aren’t even sure the sequel will happen yet. Yes, Gunn previously teased that we can expect to see more of Jaime Reyes in the future of DCU, but even Gunn’s words will hardly mean something if the movie doesn’t achieve a commercial result that is good enough to justify investing in another movie. On the other hand, Jaime’s story could theoretically continue through crossover movies since Maridueña also expressed his interest in teaming up with other DC heroes in upcoming projects.
Blue Beetle isn’t an A-list DC character, but there are still plenty of stories that he could tell on the big screen, and we know from the source material that he could be a good asset to the Justice League. We’re getting ahead of ourselves by mentioning Justice League when the franchise hasn’t even started. The characters haven’t been set up for potential crossover movies. Still, if there is a long-term plan for DCU, we will watch some new DC crossover events on the big screen sooner or later, and Blue Beetle is surely capable of being part of that event.
In case the original ‘Blue Beetle’ movie gets a standalone sequel, the story will surely deal with Jaime and Jenny finding out that Jenny’s father is still alive. The movie will also need a new villain, and we honestly wouldn’t have anything against Black Beetle, a Scarab-using supervillain from the future.
Such a villain would surely fit into developing more of Jaime Reyes’ stories. Also, if the potential sequel would feature some guest characters, how cool would it be to see John Cena there, since we know that Blue Beetle and Peacemaker have a past in the source material?
Again, there’s no telling for now if the sequel will happen, nor when we might potentially see Xolo Maridueña in DCU again. DCEU has only one movie left to be released before it’s finished for good, and although we know what the first movies and television series are set in DCU, who knows what James Gunn and Peter Safran are preparing? The first chapter of DCU is called ‘Gods and Monsters,’ and if that’s only the first chapter, who knows what DC Studios has in store for us?
‘Blue Beetle’ is now playing in theaters worldwide.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you ‘Blue Beetle’ will eventually get a sequel? Let us know in the comments.
