If you’re bringing a comic book hero to the big screen after years of crime-fighters, do-gooders and antiheroes already flooding the cinematic landscape, one thing’s for sure: you’ve got to look the part. From Spider-Man’s stretchy spandex, to Tony Stark’s shiny armour, to Wonder Woman’s Amazonian get-up, a killer costume is all part of the deal. For DC’s next hero, it’s particularly important – the Blue Beetle suit is the very thing that gives Jaime Reyes his powers, a potentially “world-destroying weapon” (as star Xolo Maridueña puts it) that latches itself to Reyes, and gives him all kinds of powers under the sun: flight, an impenetrable exoskeleton, and all the weapons he could possibly imagine. Literally.
“The suit is just incredible,” Maridueña tells Empire in the Rebel Moon issue, promising a DC hero who’ll stand out from the crowd. “It’s the coolest suit there is. After watching the movie and seeing the CGI, I was like, ‘Alright, now it’s set in stone. It’s the coolest suit.’” Your move… well, everyone else in the upcoming DCU.
Blue Beetle – greenlit under the previous DC regime, but set to introduce Jaime Reyes as the first hero of James Gunn’s upcoming DCU plans – will mark the first time the character has ever appeared on the big screen. And for his first outing, director Angel Manuel Soto is building up the character’s immense potential power slowly. “The idea was, for the first movie, we wanted to keep it as grounded as possible,” he explains. “We wanted the dangers to be more one-to-one. We wanted him first to be the hero of his family and his area and his community, before he becomes the hero of the world. Before he becomes the hero of the universe. We didn’t want him to save the planet from alien destruction on the first one.” But in time, with a suit that cool – and that powerful – the sky will be the limit.
Read Empire’s full Blue Beetle feature – talking to Maridueña, Soto and more about bringing DC’s next hero to the big screen – in the Rebel Moon issue, on sale Thursday 6 July. Become an Empire member to access the digital edition in full on launch day, or pre-order a print copy online now here. Blue Beetle comes to UK cinemas on 18 August.