With the 32 million dollar debut, “Blue Beetle” star Xolo Maridueña, Jamie Reyes, boosted his career by becoming the first leading Latino superhero in DC Studios. “Blue Beetle” was released August 18 and shined light on the Latino community. Director Angel Manuel Soto wanted to capture the excitement of the twists and turns that come with a superhero and the relatable storyline behind it all.
The movie begins with Jamie Reyes, a Mexican-American teenager who experiences a bite by a robotic scarab right after graduating college. He can transform into a coat of armor that provides him with incredible abilities such as super strength. Jaime realizes that becoming a superhero presents him with challenges he did not expect to face and he struggles to believe that his new title as “Blue Beetle” truly means his destiny. Jamie then meets Jenny, played by Bruna Marquezine, who eventually leads him to the scarab. Luckily, the support of his family helped guide Jamie through the aftermath of the bite.
“According to director Ángel Manuel Soto, the script features ‘the Latino family at its core,’ something which hasn’t been explored yet on the big screen under the lens of the superhero genre. Blue Beetle is the first superhero movie with a Latino character at the forefront, and Jaime’s closest relatives also have huge parts to play in the story,” reporter Fran Ruiz said.
Soto brought the Latino community justice by incorporating the importance of family. He wanted to create a “film family” behind the scenes to capture their intimate and personal interactions on and off the screen. These relationships became the reason that the Reyes family seemed so believable. Main stars including Maridueña, George Lopez, Damián Alcázar and Adriana Barraza developed a strong bond for one purpose: to produce a storyline that they would remain proud of creating. These actors wanted to express the value family means to Latino families.
“I loved how Latinos were portrayed in the movie because it felt so realistic and reminded me of my family and Hispanic culture in general. Latinos are known for being loud, expressive, upbeat, and family-oriented people and I think that was demonstrated well throughout the movie,” magnet sophomore Nadia Guthrie said.
After watching the movie, Guthrie expressed that the lack of Latinos in film never occurred to her because she truly did not know what representation looked like. “Blue Beetle” shows the vital representation of the culture that becomes overlooked. The movie expresses the love that binds a Latino family together whether heading up for a job interview or as simple as coming home after time away at college.
The film industry saw a slight increase in Latino directors and leads in recent years. In a film study made by Variety in 2007-2019, Warner Bros. developed less than one percent of Latino leads and co-leads and four percent of Latino directors. In 2023, 2.3% of Latino leads took part in the film. Soto produced nine films and directed 17, as a Puerto Rican screenwriter, influencing his fans to achieve their dreams no matter the societal norms. This increase led to the upbringing of new Latino leads and directors in movies such as “Blue Beetle” which led to a greater diversity in movie sets and became a place for Latinos to grow closer to their community.
“The goal is to show that Latinos are not a monolith, and as underrepresented and misunderstood as we are in Hollywood, we are powerful when united. That’s why he’s meticulous when presenting Jaime’s family, whom he wants the audience to love and see themselves represented in, Latino or not,” Variety said.
The Chant’s Grade: A
