DC and Warner Bros. Working On Blue Beetle Adaptation

The Wrap reports that DC and Warner Bros. are preparing to adapt Blue Beetle into a live-action film, focusing on the Jaime Reyes iteration of the character. Mexican-born writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer will write the script for the Latino superhero movie, while Zev Foreman will executive produce.

Reyes is a Mexican-American teenager who is the third to become the Blue Beetle after Dan Garret and Ted Kord. He was created by Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner and made his first appearance in 2006’s Infinite Crisis #5. He got his only monthly series two months later with Blue Beetle #1 in May 2006. He finds a Blue Beetle scarab on the way home with friends Paco and Brenda, buried in a disused lot. After he takes it home, it comes to life and fuses itself to the base of his spine. It gives him a suit of alien armor that enhances his speed and strength, and can also create weapons, wings and shields.

This will be DC’s first standalone film to feature a Latino lead, although Latino characters have appeared in other films, including Jay Hernandez as El Diablo in Suicide Squad. Rosie Perez is also set to play Renee Montoya in Birds of Prey. Superhero movies in general tend to draw more diverse audiences, so DC is hoping to court a relatively untapped demographic in the superhero genre. The MPAA reported that Hispanic/Latino audiences had the highest per-capita movie attendance in 2017, an average of 4.5 times per year. Latinos are 18% of the population and buy 24% of the tickets sold in the US. They also made up 22% of the audience for Wonder Woman and 21% of the audience for Spider-Man: Homecoming.