A Major DCU Hero Debuted In His Own DCEU Solo Film 3 Years Ago & Survived the Franchise Reboot

A few years ago, DC Studios needed to change course: the superhero genre hadn’t been the same for a while, and pretty much every movie coming out of it was seeing its audience and feedback decline. That’s when James Gunn and Peter Safran came in as a highly anticipated partnership to reboot the entire universe and start from scratch. However, in the middle of that process, a very different hero made its debut with a solo film that got a lot of people excited, even though its box office eventually landed at around $130 million worldwide. Given the timing, it was hard to imagine the character having a future in the DCU, almost as if the studio had released the movie because everything was already in place and it made more sense to just put it out than leave it on the shelf.

What people only found out much later was that this particular movie would actually be carried forward and its hero would be part of the next phase after all. And when you stop to think about it, it makes sense why he was able to stay. But was it pure luck or a strategic plan?

Blue Beetle Made It Through the DCU Reboot

Three years ago, exactly on August 18, Blue Beetle hit theaters as one of the DCEU’s final releases. And the ironic part at the time was that it wasn’t a sequel or anything like that, but actually the introduction of the character into the cinematic universe. The story introduces us to Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), a recent college graduate who comes back home trying to figure out what to do with his life and ends up becoming the host of an alien Scarab. The technology bonds with his body and creates an armor with powers he definitely wasn’t expecting to have to deal with. It’s an amazing origin story for the genre, as Jaime gains his powers, has no idea what to do with them, discovers there’s an organization after the Scarab, and has to learn how to become a hero.

And sure, the movie didn’t exactly have a great result, but it’s still easy to find fans who had a truly good time with it (no wonder its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 90%). And that has a lot less to do with its structure and much more to do with how it handles its characters, because Jaime’s family is part of the conflict basically the entire time, and in many moments, they’re the reason he keeps fighting. That was actually a deliberate choice by director Ángel Manuel Soto and writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, who wanted from the beginning to represent three generations of a family and build relationships that would feel familiar to people. It’s nice to follow a conventional superhero adventure, but when that formula is changed a little in favor of making the audience connect with the characters, it makes the whole experience much more fun and emotional.

So, naturally, a lot of people started wondering whether there would eventually be a Blue Beetle sequel. Soto had already said there had been conversations about it, especially after the post-credits scene involving Ted Kord. The thing is that whether they liked it or not, everything still depended on the DCU reboot. Luckily, Blue Beetle was never exactly a hero who needed the cinematic universe around him, since his movie didn’t have a setup connecting it to another movie or require it to explain something that happened in another feature — the story simply takes place in Palmera City, with Jaime, his family, and the Scarab. So, when Gunn and Safran took over DC Studios, there weren’t any real strings tying him to the old cinematic universe. In fact, in 2023, Gunn revealed that Superman would be the first film of the new phase, but Blue Beetle was the first character to be part of it. So, basically, it came down to timing and luck.

And, of course, there was Maridueña, because all the film’s success with fans had a lot to do with him as well. The actor was one of the most praised parts of the whole feature, so if things had gone differently and the hero hadn’t survived the reboot, recasting him would have probably been one of the studio’s biggest mistakes. Thankfully, it all worked out, and now the real question is: where exactly does Blue Beetle fit into this new phase of the DCU?

When and How Blue Beetle Could Return to the DCU

Thinking about the movie schedule, Superman arrived in 2025, and Supergirl came out this year. Plenty of other projects are in line, including Clayface, Man of Tomorrow, and several others still in development. And, much to the audience’s delight, it looks like Blue Beetle may already have a guaranteed return in Clark Kent’s second movie. Reportedly, Maridueña is already set to return, with Jaime being reintroduced to the DCU. The film is currently scheduled to be released on July 9, 2027, but it’s important to stress that the story details have not been officially announced yet.

But honestly, this is a much better place for Blue Beetle to come back than just getting a sequel (even though it’s set to get an animated series). What the character needs now is context: how does Jaime function in a world where Superman (David Corenswet) exists? Is he just getting started as a superhero? Does the Scarab have any connection to the cosmic threats the DCU plans to explore? These are much more interesting questions, and Man of Tomorrow has exactly the kind of setup that could answer some of them, considering the sequel will put Superman and Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) in a situation where both of them have to deal with Brainiac (Lars Eidinger). But how?

Brainiac represents an alien intelligence obsessed with acquiring and controlling knowledge, while the Scarab is a sentient alien technology created by the Reach, a race that uses these weapons to conquer worlds — this gives Jaime a natural connection to the cosmic side of the DCU. So, the movie could use his knowledge (and Khaji Da itself) to offer a different perspective on an extraterrestrial threat, especially since in the comics, Jaime eventually learns more about the nature of the Scarab through his interactions with extraterrestrial entities, including the Green Lantern Corps, whose mythology is already being explored in Lanterns.

So, maybe the biggest concern now is how much of Blue Beetle‘s story will actually continue to matter. Well, the truth is that the very idea of a reintroduction allows the DCU to keep Jaime around without making every event from his film something that has to be carried over into this new phase. His origin can remain basically intact, while other specific elements can just be left behind. Gunn himself has already explained that some elements from past stories can be consistent with the new continuity without automatically making all of that older material canon.

Three years ago, Blue Beetle seemed like nothing more than a movie arriving too late, but it ended up making its protagonist the first confirmed character of the franchise reboot, and now he has a chance to return in Man of Tomorrow. Honestly, for a hero who debuted right as the doors were closing and whose movie didn’t exactly set the box office on fire, that’s not a bad fate at all.