Blue Beetle Is James Gunn’s DCU’s First Official Movie

It’s been revealed that the upcoming Blue Beetle movie is going to be the first ‘official’ movie of James Gunn’s DC Universe, which I think is great news. The movie’s first trailer landed yesterday, and I think that the movie looks like a lot of fun.

So, DC Studios released the movie’s first trailer yesterday, and I was very impressed by it. It certainly looks like this film is going to be DC Studios’ answer to the recent Spider-Man films.

I got a lot of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Venom and Upgrade vibes from the trailer. I loved two out of three of those movies. However, I will say that Upgrade is a much better Venom movie than Venom was.

Anyway, it’s now being reported that this Blue Beetle movie is actually going to end up being the first ‘official’ movie of the DC Universe.

Blue Beetle movie could be James Gunn’s first official DCU movie

Credit: DC Studios

READ MORE: Jack Ryan Season 4: Everything We Know So Far

So, according to Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro, the “word is” that Xolo Marideuña’s Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle will be one of the characters included in the new franchise. This is actually very interesting because Blue Beetle has a very strong connection with Booster Gold in the comic books.

We already know, thanks to James Gunn, that DC Studios is working on a Booster Gold series. There have already been rumours that Gunn wants to cast Chris Pratt as the lead character in this upcoming series, which is slated to be released on HBO Max.

Moreover, during the press conference back in January in which Gunn and Peter Safran revealed the first few projects of the new DC Universe, Gunn confirmed Blue Beetle was “totally disconnected” from any other DC-related property.

It seemed as though the filmmaker/DC Studios co-CEO was suggesting that it’s possible the character would be involved in the franchise moving forward. Here’s what Gunn had to say on the matter:

I think that we’ve gotten lucky with the next four movies, frankly, because we have [Shazam! Fury of the Gods], which leads into Flash, which resets everything, which then goes into Blue Beetle, which is totally disconnected. He can totally be a part of the DCU, goes into [Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom], which leads into Superman, our first big project.

Gunn continued:

But the one thing that we can promise is that everything from Superman forward, or from our first project forward, will be canon and will be connected. We’re using some actors from the past. We’re not using other actors from the past, but everything from that moment forward will be connected and consistent.

Could Blue Beetle and Booster Gold be friends in the DCU…?

READ MORE: When Will Wednesday Season 2 Be Released?

It’s been revealed that the Blue Beetle movie is currently set to be released exclusively in theatres on August 18th, 2023. The movie was actually originally going to be released exclusively on HBO Max.

However, when WarnerMedia and Discovery ended up merging, Warner Bros. Discovery’s new CEO, David Zaslav, decided to make the film a theatrical release. He also opted to cancel the Batgirl film, which was also being planned for an HBO Max release.

As for the future of the DC Universe, we have the likes of  Creature Commandos, the Booster Gold series, Superman: Legacy, the Paradise Lost series, and Batman: The Brave And The Bold to look forward to watching. They’re also working on a The Authority movie and a Swamp Thing film, which is reportedly going to be directed by James Mangold.

Blue Beetle is going to be released in cinemas in the United States and in the United Kingdom on August 18th, 2023.

What do you make of this news? Are you looking forward to watching this upcoming Blue Beetle movie? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

What do you make of this story? Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages! And if you enjoy listening to film podcasts, why not check out our podcast, The Small Screen Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts!