An origin story 5 years in the making, Puerto Rican filmmaker Ángel Manuel Soto is finally seeing his vision of the Mexican-American superhero Blue Beetle brought to life in DC Studios’ Blue Beetle.
Starring Xolo Maridueña in the lead role, the film tells of recent college graduate Jaime Reyes and his return home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armour capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero BLUE BEETLE.
Ahead of the film’s release in Australia, Peter Gray spoke with Soto about the pride in representing Latino culture on screen, infusing the film with a strong female energy, and celebrating the nostalgic feeling of the movies he grew up with.
Starring Xolo Maridueña in the lead role, the film tells of recent college graduate Jaime Reyes and his return home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armour capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero BLUE BEETLE.
Ahead of the film’s release in Australia, Peter Gray spoke with Soto about the pride in representing Latino culture on screen, infusing the film with a strong female energy, and celebrating the nostalgic feeling of the movies he grew up with.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 How are you, Peter?
00:01 I'm very well, thank you. How are you?
00:02 Good, good, good. Pleasure to meet you.
00:05 You too. I will say congratulations on the film, first of all.
00:08 And I had the I had the pleasure of speaking to Sasha Khaje
00:13 when The Flash came out and she was saying
00:17 like how important it was for her to sort of, you know,
00:21 have that sort of Latino representation.
00:24 Like I imagine, was it the same for you sort of getting this film
00:27 and realising just how much like
00:30 or how organic you could make this film with these characters?
00:33 100 percent. Like
00:35 Latino is not a genre, you know, it's just who we are.
00:40 And we we cannot hide it.
00:43 Yeah, I cannot hide it in the way I do things like I'm Puerto Rican.
00:48 I'm inherently Latino.
00:49 That's what is going to come out.
00:51 And it's very nice just to see a different flavour of a superhero
00:55 and much like Khaje,
00:57 which who I adore,
01:01 our cast, who is all Latino, for the exception of Susan,
01:05 felt the same way.
01:08 They felt so excited to be able to be themselves
01:12 in these characters, not try to be somebody else
01:17 and also see themselves as heroes in a movie
01:21 because everybody in the family has a heroic moment.
01:25 And I can only wish them to be here because they would have loved it.
01:29 But, you know, they have our full support.
01:32 Absolutely. And like, as you were saying, I was so happy
01:37 and like so surprised that like as much as, you know, Jaime is Blue Beetle,
01:42 the women in this family like get to just like Nana
01:46 brandishing the gal, like it was amazing.
01:50 Like, did you have did you have like was from the get go?
01:53 Were you like, OK, I need these women to be just as much as as bad
01:57 as as as Blue Beetle?
01:58 100 percent. Like
02:00 even in my family, if I wanted to do something,
02:04 my dad would say, ask your mom.
02:07 My mom is. Yeah.
02:09 And our parents are like that, too.
02:12 So we really wanted to to to give the woman in our lives
02:17 the celebration and the power they deserve
02:21 because thanks to them, we at least we are the people we are now.
02:26 And thanks to them, I think
02:30 I wouldn't be where I am today.
02:34 Neither would Jaime.
02:35 So it was very important for us to give each and every one of them
02:40 a heroic moment that builds Jaime and Blue Beetle
02:45 to become the hero that he is.
02:47 Yeah, absolutely.
02:48 Now, like and I like just the film itself has as a kid of the 80s,
02:52 like it had that 1980s feel, which I was just like the energy,
02:56 the enthusiasm, like the the charisma of everything.
02:59 I just like responded to it immediately because, yeah, like we love seeing
03:03 those films that like aren't taking themselves seriously,
03:05 but then have this very serious like narrative underneath.
03:08 So I really have to say, I know, like, congratulations.
03:12 It's just awesome to see more and more stories, you know,
03:15 separate from everything else that we see get told.
03:17 So I really I really hope that everyone, you know, comes out for this one
03:21 because it's just like it's just fun.
03:23 And that's what we want right now.
03:24 Oh, man, I appreciate that.
03:25 We really wanted to do that.
03:27 There's there's that nostalgia factor from the movies
03:31 that we grew up watching that they have a message.
03:35 They have a serious thing, but it's about there's a fun element to it.
03:39 And we wanted to really lean into that fun
03:44 and also not lose perspective that the viscerality of their relationships
03:51 and the things that happen do happen in the real world.
03:54 And that way just allowed us to give homage to all those movies
04:01 we grew up with and the score, the aesthetics,
04:05 the lights and the overall energy is something that I was like, OK,
04:10 I want to do something for my younger self.
04:12 I want to do something that my nieces can watch.
04:15 I understand where why that why uncle is the way he is, you know,
04:19 and have fun with that.
04:21 Yeah, no, absolutely, man.
04:22 Thank you. Thank you so much.
04:24 Congratulations again. Thank you. Thank you.