“The Flash” currently sits at $141 million at the global box office, marking another meager showing for a DCEU film in theaters. And now only two films remain to end the franchise’s run on a high note: James Wan‘s much-anticipated “Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom” in December and Angel Manuel Soto‘s “Blue Beetle” later this summer. But the way Soto tells it, his film may not be a one-off and has a future in the upcoming DCU.
READ MORE: ‘Blue Beetle’ Trailer: DC’s College-Age Superhero Arrives In Theaters This August
Deadline reports (via Total Film) that Soto confirmed that his film and its hero will segue into the plans of DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran. “We are part of the universe, we are part of the world, we are part of the plans that they have been creating for the future installments of the DCU,” Soto said to Total Film. “But we are not tied to all the films from the past,” the director went on. “Yes, our movie lives in the world where superheroes exist. But that doesn’t mean that a certain event, or certain alliance, or certain things from the past dictate where our film is going.”
In other words, “Blue Beetle” won’t feature any crossover between Xolo Maridueña‘s Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle and the likes of Henry Cavill‘s Superman, Gal Gadot‘s Wonder Woman, and other DCEU heroes who won’t return in the new DCU. No cameos or connection to other DCEU fare may be the best thing for “Blue Beetle” at this point. The Warner Bros. franchise is amid a box-office slump for its past seven films. The last runaway success for the DCEU brand? “Shazam!” in 2019, which took in $367.7 million globally off a $100 million budget.
But maybe “Blue Beetle” will fare better than the likes of “Black Adam” and “Shazam!: Fury Of The Gods” with audiences. Soto’s film stars Maridueña as Jaime Reyes, a recent college grad in Palmera City who develops superpowers after an alien Blue Beetle scarab grafts onto him. And if Soto gets his wish and “Blue Beetle” is a hit, he envisions the film as the first part of a trilogy. “Our first movie, the way we wanted to do it, was always with the mentality that we wanted to do two more, at least,” Soto told Total Film. “And taking the traditional three-act structure of a story, we wanted our first movie to practically be the first act of a saga.” Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, George Lopez, and Becky G also star in “Blue Beetle.”
So will “Blue Beetle” be a box-office success and become a trilogy that unfolds in Gunn and Safran’s new DCU? Before speculating on that, let’s see how the first film does in theaters. “Blue Beetle” hits theaters everywhere on August 18.