Blue Beetle brings a fresh beginning to the new DC Universe, guided by directors James Gunn and Peter Safran. Led by Puerto Rican filmmaker Ángel Manuel Soto, the movie introduces us to a DC superhero who has been eagerly awaited on the cinematic stage.
While speaking with DiscussingFilm, Soto talked about the movie holds a special importance and how valuable it was for him to have his family included in the process. “The family aspect of Blue Beetle is so genuine and each member of the Reyes household stands out from one another in their own ways. Of course, we don’t always see these kinds of fleshed-out characters in Latino stories. Are there any stereotypes surrounding Latino families that you wanted to avoid the most while making Blue Beetle?”
He continued, “For me, it was always very important that this superhero, although he is called Blue Beetle, his name is Jaime and the beetle is called Khaji Da. Basically, Blue Beetle is a mantle that someone puts on him and we said, ‘Why don’t we tell a story that is a little bit refreshing to the original superhero stories?’ While we know that a superhero is attracted to their powers, yet they keep them in a dark room and hide the secret to protect their family, we wanted to explore the idea of how, we as Latinos, our mothers are always up our noses. You know, it’s really hard to hide a secret from Mom. We then said, ‘If you can’t hide a secret from your family, why don’t you use it to your advantage?'”
Soto further said, “That’s why we chose to include Jaime’s family in his heroic transformation. Even when Jaime has the suit and he’s a superhero, the family keeps busting his balls! And that kind of family bullying and that kind of relationship was something we wanted to honor. Also, we wanted to make sure that the Reyes family wasn’t a prop and that they weren’t bait, that they weren’t this thing that the bad guy grabs and threatens Jaime with. No!”
Blue Beetles is out in cinemas now.
