Blue Beetle director Ángel Manuel Soto reveals how family and culture play a part in the superhero's "transformation"

Blue Beetle is one of the most anticipated superhero films in recent months. After initially failing to generate momentum, the rare DC gem is now finally enjoying some overdue anticipation ahead of its release on August 18, 2023. The film will follow the titular superhero, played by Xolo Maridueña, as he stumbles upon an ancient relic that gives him superpowers.

After the failure of most of the previous DC projects, this new entry is set to change the direction of the studio, which recently put James Gunn in a decisive position. Blue Beetle is set to explore a plethora of interesting things, as revealed by director Ángel Manuel Soto in an exclusive interview with Discussing Film.

But among the most interesting things and themes that this film deals with, there is the factor of family. The film will, of course, surround a Latino family, which will act quite differently from how we have seen families in superhero movies before. As per the director, the team has used the family and Latino culture in favor of the superhero's development. He said:

"We chose to include Jaime’s family in his heroic transformation. Even when Jaime has the suit and he’s a superhero, the family keeps busting his balls! And that kind of family bullying and that kind of relationship was something we wanted to honor."

He also elaborated in detail on why this sweet change from other superhero movies was so important.

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"Why don’t we tell a story that is a little bit refreshing to the original superhero stories?"- Blue Beetle director on the use of Latino culture in the movie

There have been so many superhero movies over the past few years that it seems like all the archetypes and variations have already been used. But this film will feature something completely new, something that Ángel Manuel Soto claims is drawn from Latino culture.

This refreshing thing is "family." The close-knit Latino family archetype was reportedly used by the makers to give a fresh angle to the superhero. Soto said:

"For me, it was always very important that this superhero, although he is called Blue Beetle, his name is Jaime and the beetle is called Khaji Da. Basically, Blue Beetle is a mantle that someone puts on him and we said, “Why don’t we tell a story that is a little bit refreshing to the original superhero stories?” While we know that a superhero is attracted to their powers, yet they keep them in a dark room and hide the secret to protect their family, we wanted to explore the idea of how, we as Latinos, our mothers are always up our noses."

He added:

"You know, it’s really hard to hide a secret from Mom. We then said, “If you can’t hide a secret from your family, why don’t you use it to your advantage?"...That’s why we chose to include Jaime’s family in his heroic transformation."

If done correctly, these numerous changes and refreshing takes on the superhero genre could really propel Blue Beetle in the right direction, somewhere it can break the curse of DC movies that have almost all suffered terribly at the box office.

Blue Beetle releases on August 18, 2023, in theatres.