BLUE BEETLE Director Angel Manuel Soto Was Fixated On This BATMAN Villain Before WB Sold Him On Jaime Reyes

We're just a few weeks out from the release of Blue Beetle in theaters and Den of Geek has spoken to director Angel Manuel for its latest magazine issue.

It seems that when Warner Bros. called in Manuel to make a pitch, he had no idea it would be for making a film about Jaime Reyes assuming the Blue Beetle torch from Ted Kord.

Instead, Manuel thought he was getting the chance to pitch a film of his choice and he went into the meeting prepared to sell the studio on a Bane origin film. 

"I wanted to pitch ideas, and one of them was the Bane origin story,” Soto told Den of Geek about getting called by Warner Bros to pitch a DC film. “I always thought that there was something interesting in exploring his reality and how a character like that comes to be.”

However, Manuel found out that it wasn't a meeting where he would get to convince studio executives about a character of his choice.  "The conversation was not about that,” Soto recalled.  Instead, the studio told him, “There’s this character that we’ve been developing for a couple of years. The Blue Beetle, a Latino superhero.”

Given Blue Beetle's current box office tracking, do you think Warner Bros. should have listened to Manuel's initial pitch for a Bane origin film?

Hopefully the box office early predictions begin to tick upwards thanks to positive word of mouth from early screenings and favorable film reviews. 

There's also the chance that Bane might factor into James Gunn's current plans for the new DC Studios cinematic universe and Manuel has his wish fulfilled one day.

Blue Beetle is currently slated to hit U.S. theaters on August 18.

Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns 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 armor capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the Super Hero BLUE BEETLE.

Starring alongside Maridueña (“Cobra Kai”) are Adriana Barraza (“Rambo: Last Blood,” “Thor”), Damían Alcázar (“Narcos,” “Narcos: Mexico”), Elpidia Carrillo (“Mayans M.C.,” the “Predator” films), Bruna Marquezine (“Maldivas,” “God Save the King”), Raoul Max Trujillo (the “Sicario” films, “Mayans M.C.”), with Oscar winner Susan Sarandon (“Monarch,” “Dead Man Walking”), and George Lopez (the “Rio and “Smurf” franchises). The film also stars Belissa Escobedo (“American Horror Stories,” “Hocus Pocus 2”) and Harvey Guillén (“What We Do in the Shadows”). Soto (“Charm City Kings,” “The Farm”) directs from a screenplay by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (“Miss Bala”), based on characters from DC. John Rickard and Zev Foreman are producing, with Walter Hamada, Galen Vaisman and Garrett Grant serving as executive producers.