Get ready, for in exactly 3 days, Blue Beetle will finally be hitting theaters after much anticipation of seeing Xolo Maridueña's Jaime Reyes adapted onto the big screen.
Blue Beetle Director Angel Manuel Soto revealed in a recent interview with DiscussingFilm (full Interview here) the several references Blue Beetle's weapon manifestation capibilities will allude to -- including that of an exciting counterpart of the character we have seen before in the Injustice 2 video game.
"We used a lot of references like The Raid movies and Gangs of London for the hand-to-hand combat, which Jon Valera, our stunt coordinator, drives very well. We managed to make something that represented that kind of flesh-to-flesh intimacy that can exist in violence. But, at the same time, we play with different alternatives that are fantastic and the wish-fulfillment of a young man. For example, a lot of the combos in Injustice 2, we used them as a reference during fights and with the manifestations of the weapons. Blue Beetle’s blaster was even inspired by Mega Man!"
"There’s a scene where Jaime says, “Khaji, show me something”, and he pulls out a gun that we chose to look like the ZF-1 gun from The Fifth Element. And he’s like, “No Kahji, no killing!” Then we play with that again towards the end when Jaime goes “Anything I want? Okay!” and he busts out Cloud’s sword [from Final Fantasy VII] Why? Because we’re gamers! We were asking ourselves, “Wow, what would I want to create?” I always wanted to have a buster sword like they do in Final Fantasy. To be able to play with those nods, including some from Dragon Ball Z. Play with a lot of other references that I’m not going to spoil – it was super good fun. I felt like I was twelve again!"
Clearly, Soto was in Candyland during production of the film, with his only limit of Blue Beetle manifesting his advanced weaponry being his imagination -- we can also expect more references when watching the film, as Soto claims there are many more references he would not want to spoil before its release.
Jaime Reyes suddenly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology called the Scarab. When the Scarab chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he's bestowed with an incredible suit of armor that's capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero Blue Beetle.
The film stars Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle alongside Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, and George Lopez.
Blue Beetle is set to be released in theaters on August 18, 2023.