Blue Beetle Director Always Wanted Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña To Play The Lead

[Animous]

Blue Beetle director says he always wanted Xolo Maridueña to play Jaime Reyes. First created by Fox Comics, DC obtained the rights to Blue Beetle in 1983. Before the publisher took over the superhero, it had already had two incarnations. Still, DC Comics again updated the character in 2006's Infinite Crisis #3, introducing Jaime Reyes as its latest version. The teenager transformed into the eponymous metahuman after encountering the original Blue Beetle scarab morph into a battle suit. Over the years, there have been scattered attempts at bringing Blue Beetle to life, but the appearances have largely remained limited to some animated Teen Titans movies and a brief role in the final season of Smallville. However, with Warner Bros. and DC Films expanding their DCEU cinematic franchise, Reyes will finally get a showcase of his own alongside Barbara Gordon's Batgirl.

As announced last year, a film centered around Jaime Reyes' Blue Beetle is being fast-tracked for release on HBO Max, with Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer serving as screenwriter and Charm City Kings helmer Angel Manuel Soto attached as the director. Until June, casting details for the movie were slim, but then rumors broke out that Cobra Kai's Maridueña was being eyed for the lead role. Maridueña was officially confirmed for the part earlier this month. Now, the executives at DC and the film's creators have broken their silence on the actor's involvement in the project.

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In an interview with THR, DC Films President Walter Hamada and Soto revealed that Maridueña was always the first choice for Blue Beetle. Soto had met Maridueña at Sundance a few years ago, and he had him in mind for the role of Jaime from the moment he signed on to direct the film. Hence, Warner Bros. didn't need to go through the regular, elaborate procedure to find their superhero; rather Maridueña was finalized to Jaime Reyes very quickly. Soto explained, "His persona is pretty much the character of Jaime Reyes. It was a natural fit.”

Interestingly, as the Honest Trailer for Cobra Kai highlighted, Maridueña was a popular fan-cast for the Marvel hero Nova, a character that shares similar origins to Blue Beetle. Hence, when Maridueña was announced to play Jaime Reyes, fans got immediately excited as they had already been imagining the popular teen star as a Latinx superhero. Unsurprisingly, Maridueña is now inspiring several pieces of fanart, which manifest the actor's comic-accurate casting as Blue Beetle.

There is still a lot that fans don't know about Blue Beetle yet. Yes, casting Maridueña as the lead was a no-brainer for Soto. But the film still needs to round out the remaining characters in the ensemble, including possibly Booster Gold, Jaime's Justice League ally whom he frequently partners with. With no other talents attached to the project so far, it will probably be quite a wait before Blue Beetle sets its premiere. But fans should still look for references to the film and a possible set-up in James Gunn's upcoming Peacemaker series, as in the comics, the titular anti-hero Christopher Smith played an important role in mentoring Jaime to find his strengths and powers.

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