If the recent success of Marvel’s X-Men ‘97 taught us anything, it’s that sometimes a more animated approach to comic book adaptation is the way to go. Just last week, we had a very promising looking trailer for Warner Bros.’ new two-part animated Watchmen adaptation. And now, in another exciting development, Deadline are reporting that Warner Bros. Animation and DC Studios are gearing up to make a Blue Beetle animated series.
Ambiguously described as neither a direct sequel to nor redux of Ángel Manuel Soto's live-action DCEU movie, the animated Blue Beetle show — which showrunner-director Miguel Puga (The Casagrandes) and writer Cristian Martinez (Good Trouble) have been working on since early this year — will instead "build on the movie" whilst diverting from retelling its story. And, intriguingly, the report goes on to suggest that if Puga's animated take on the franchise is successful, it could yet pave the way for Cobra Kai star Xolo Maridueña's Jaime Reyes — DC's first Latino lead and first Latin superhero — to make a big-screen comeback as part of James Gunn's new-look DC Universe.
Arriving in the purgatorial space between the announcement of the end of the DCEU and the start of Gunn and Peter Safran's ambitious franchise reboot, it would be fair to say that Jaime Reyes' big-screen debut found itself between something of a rock and a hard place on release. Despite generally positive reviews for Angel Manuel Soto's cinematic take on the tale of an El Paso teen granted extraordinary powers by a flesh-burrowing bug, Blue Beetle wound up limping to a $130 million showing at the global box office on a $104 million budget. However, with the promising franchise set to be drawn back to life (quite literally) with this new series, there's hope yet that star Maridueña's dream of going "the whole nine yards" with future DC Studios Blue Beetle projects may come true yet. The campaign _bug_ins here!