“We rarely get a chance to be leading movies”: Ángel Manuel Soto is Not Happy Xolo Maridueña Abandoned Blue Beetle Amid Actors Strike
Hitting the theaters as the last superhero movie of the summer, Blue Beetle boasted multiple selling points, including bringing the DCU’s first superhero to the fore.
Still, the biggest of them all was DC Studios’ milestone decision to give a Latin star the center of the stage in its superhero feature for the first time ever.
Jaime Reyes – the third Blue Beetle succeeding Ted Kord and Dan Garrett in being bestowed with an incredible suit of armor from the Scarab – is a Mexican-American teenager from El Paso, Texas. DC roped in Xolo Maridueña to portray the lead character.
How Xolo Maridueña’s Blue Beetle Is Different Than Any Other DC Movie
The first-ever Latino-led superhero movie meant the cultural representation didn’t end just with the casting of Xolo Maridueña.
The Ángel Manuel Soto-directed movie also features the likes of Bruna Marquezine and George Lopez in important roles and the history of the Reyes family is key to the narrative arc of the movie which is like no other previous DC project. Jaime, a college graduate, is steadily made aware of his roots and the hardship of his family.
This was one of the big selling points for the La Granja director himself. “I did this movie because I never had a movie like this done for me,” Soto said, “with people that look like me being heroes of their own stories.”
However, the early performance of Blue Beetle at the box office has been underwhelming, to say the least, despite it progressing one of the greatest heroic legacies in the DCU.
With an opening weekend gross of $25.4 million, it becomes DC Extended Universe’s second-worst performing movie. Only Gal Gadot‘s Wonder Woman 1984 did worse, earning just $16.7 million on the opening weekend.
Why Ángel Manuel Soto Is Disappointed With Blue Beetle’s Promotion
The superhero Blue Beetle has been fighting the good fight in the DC Universe since 1939 with his powers that include creating wings to fly and shields to thwart attacks. As such, it’s surprising to see the modest hype Jaime’s version has generated so far.
Some analysts might remark on the lack of promotion from Blue Beetle‘s star cast as the reason for the movie’s failure to make appropriate headlines. The Cobra Kai kid earlier confessed he isn’t promoting his much-awaited project because of the on-going strike.
Soto is disappointed with how things have developed so far, but his reaction comes from a very different place and for different reasons. While talking about his experience of promoting the movie alone, he said:
“… It always feels cool, but that whole understanding that this moment for me, I would have loved it for them to experience it because we rarely get a chance to be leading movies, much less leading superhero movies. For me, them being taken away from that opportunity is the one thing that kinda weighs on me, but at the same time, I’m constantly reminded that one, it’s not about me, and two, they’re fighting a good fight.”
However, the Puerto Rican filmmaker praised his cast for sacrificing such a big opportunity to show their solidarity with the strike that is demanding better pay and working conditions for actors and writers.
Read more: Blue Beetle Director’s Next Project is a Buddy Action-Comedy With a Marvel and DC Star
Source: Collider
