Blue Beetle's trailer has arrived to give us our first look at Cobra Kai star Xolo Maridueña's new DC hero.
The new movie centres on college graduate Jaime Reyes (Maridueña) who returns home full of hope for his future, only to find things aren't quite as he left it. As we see in the trailer, this all changes when he goes for a job and comes home with something quite different.
Given a burger box by Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine) and warned not to open it, he opens it (of course) and finds an ancient relic of alien biotechnology called the Scarab inside. And the Scarab soon chooses Jaime to be his symbiotic host.
Naturally, it isn't all smooth sailing as you can see when you check out the first trailer for Blue Beetle below:
The Scarab gifts Jaime with an incredible suit of armour that bestows the host extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing Jaime's destiny as he becomes the new superhero in town, the Blue Beetle.
As ever, there's somebody out there looking to take that power from Jaime and here it's Susan Sarandon's Victoria Kord. In the trailer, she tells Jaime: "The Scarab chose you, but it belongs to me."
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While she's been created for the movie, comic book fans will know the name Kord from Ted Kord, who was the Blue Beetle before Jaime Reyes. Could she be his sister or wife, aggrieved that she didn't get the Scarab from Ted?
For now, the movie looks largely separate to the wider DC universe, although there is one fun reference to one of DC's biggest heroes at the end when Jaime's father Alberto (Damían Alcázar) says "Batman's a fascist".
Blue Beetle is released in cinemas on August 18 after initially being considered for a streaming release.
Fans were initially concerned that the movie wouldn't survive the DC cull after Batgirl was cancelled, but the movie has emerged out of the James Gunn and Peter Safran DC Studios takeover unscathed.
Maridueña previously explained how he landed the coveted role, revealing that he got the role without an audition:
"In the beginning, there was a bit of impostor syndrome. Like, 'Oh my gosh, how do they know? I haven't even read a word of the script! How can they be so sure?' Everyone was so welcoming and instilled so much confidence in me through the filming of the movie."
He continued: "Blue Beetle isn't to make me the next heartthrob or biggest star. It's just to show people, 'Hey, these stories about Latinos don't have to just be about narcos or crossing the border or being a gang member. You can be portrayed in a positive light.' A superhero seems like the most positive light you can get in this industry."
Blue Beetle is released in cinemas on August 18.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Jacob is a freelance writer who specialises in narrative TV and film.
He graduated from the University of Roehampton with an MA in Journalism and has written for several publications since, including Gold Derby, Insider, and Screen Daily.
Jacob has covered major events in the world of film and TV, including numerous BAFTA ceremonies and the Cannes Film Festival, while he's also been an awards expert for several publications, including Korea's Arirang. His particular areas of interest include Star Wars, the MCU, the Oscars, and Hugh Grant.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
