Blue Beetle will sadly not fly alongside his DCEU contemporaries on the big screen.
Following the merger of Warner Bros. Media and Discovery, the studio’s plans for Jaime Reyes and his alien Scarab are veering away from theatrical release. Rather, the film project will be featured on HBO Max. Further, it is listed as a “mid-budget” DC film headed there alongside Batgirl. There is no word yet on casting on either films, but “mid-budget” is clarified as $65 million in backing.  Blue Beetle, however, has the director’s spot filled by Angel Manuel Soto.
Blue Beetle Legacy in Comics
The Blue Beetle mantle has been passed on several times over the decades. Further, the actual property had been passed through two companies before DC acquired it, beginning at Fox Features Syndicate and Publishing. Created by Charles Nickolas Wojtkowksi in 1939, the Golden Age Blue Beetle had been Dan Garrett, but more prominent bearers of have been Garrett’s successor Ted Kord, and finally Reyes. Garrett had been an archaeologist that had unearthed the Scarab on a dig. Dan discovered the artifact endowed him with multiple abilities. When the property was bought by Charlton Comics, the mantle fell to Garrett’s former student, Kord, created by Steve Ditko. Unlike Garrett, however, Ted had been unable to access the Scarab’s true abilities. Instead, he devoted his wealth and his company to develop Beetle-inspired gadgets and weaponry. Acquired in the mid-1980s by DC, he made his first DC appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Subsequently, he was made a member of the Justice League International series, which saw the beginning of his bromance with time-travelling B-list hero, Booster Gold. Before Infinite Crisis he murdered by Justice League liaison-turned villain Maxwell Lord. The scarab then found its way into the hands of the teenage Jaime and symbiotically bonded with him in a way that surpassed its bond with Garrett. As the new Blue Beetle, Reyes sees the Scarab as his “partner,” which protects him with indestructible armor and energy weaponry. It was in recent years when the Scarab’s origins had finally been explored. It was really a member of a race of cybernetic insectoid alien collective known as The Reach. Rebelling against its brethren, Jaime’s scarab strengthened its bond and developed its own personality as the result, its name revealed as “Khaji Da” (the first part translated as Infiltrator while Da was its serieal number).
Although the film project will focus on Reyes – thus making this DC’s first Latinx superhero project –Â this is not the first time that he has been portrayed in a live-action format. In fact, both he and his predecessor Ted Kord were featured in a tenth season episode of Smallville, portrayed by Jaren Brant Bartlett and Sebastian Spence, respectively. The later CW series Arrow and The Flash had also namedropped Kord over the years.
Aside from Blue Beetle and Batgirl, DC President Walter Hamada has his eye on Static Shock‘s potential on HBO Max.
More as it develops.
Original Source – DC’s Blue Beetle Movie Will Reportedly Head Straight to Streaming – IGN
