SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Blue Beetle. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk!
As fans are quick to note, the present state of movies based on DC Comics is a bit messy. While new DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have an ambitious vision of a multiplatform, interconnected franchise that will be called the DC Universe and launch with the upcoming Superman: Legacy, not much is clear about where that leaves the heroes with blockbusters being released before then. The future beyond Blue Beetle, for example, is not entirely clear… but that hasn’t stopped the film from arriving on the big screen with a tease of a potential direction for a sequel.
Like just about all modern superhero movies, there is a Blue Beetle end credits scene, and it teases the introduction of a character who would become a very important figure in a Blue Beetle 2. We don’t presently know if that’s a movie that we will get to see, but if you’re confused by any of it or wondering about where it could lead, you’re in the right place. This feature has been put together to break it all down – and we’ll start with a quick recap of what actually happens in the mid-credits sequence:
What Happens In The Blue Beetle End Credits Scene
Following the flashy title card end credits, Blue Beetle returns to the Kord mansion and the lair of the original Blue Beetle: Ted Kord. Despite the fact that nobody is in the room, the lights start to turn on and the song “All Out Of Love” by Air Supply begins to play. After we spot an empty mannequin that was formerly outfitted with one of the hero’s costumes, the song starts to skip, and a fuzzy video appears on the main computer’s monitors.
A voice starts to come through, but there’s no clear video identifying who is speaking. The person asks if the transmission is working, and delivers a message to the person who turned on the computer. He first wants whoever is listening to get in contact with his daughter and tell her that he loves her, and he adds to say, “Her a dad is alive. Ted Kord is alive.”
Without another word, the scene cuts to black and the normal scrolling credits begin.
Who Is Ted Kord And How Does The End Credits Scene Tie Into The Film?
Ted Kord is a hero mentioned but not actually present in Blue Beetle, and we get to know a bit about him via different conversations between characters throughout the movie. The “daughter” mentioned in the mid-credits scene is Jenny Kord (played by Bruna Marquezine) and Ted is the sister of Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), the film’s central antagonist.
Victoria and her father created the technology firm, Kord Industries, together, but when the Kord patriarch died, he apparently left the company not in Victoria’s control, but Ted’s. He began to take the enterprise in a new direction, but his efforts were cut short when he mysteriously disappeared. His sister then reclaimed control of Kord Industries and began making moves to erase her sibling’s entire legacy – specifically by starting the OMAC project.
The public was aware of Ted Kord as an ambitious, eccentric millionaire trying to do good, but there was a side of him of which people weren’t aware. Kord would moonlight as the costumed vigilante named the Blue Beetle. While he was personally unable to unlock the power of the scarab – unlike Jamie Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) – he used his money and access to advanced technologies to fight crime.
The circumstances regarding Ted’s disappearance are ambiguous (presumably so that the filmmakers can have narrative wiggle room for when it’s time for that story to be told), but we do know that he is only missing and not dead. It also seems that wherever he is trapped, he has a connection to his lair but no way to return.
What The Director Has Said About Ted Kord’s Potential Future
As mentioned earlier, it’s unclear where things specifically stand with Blue Beetle and the future DC Universe. James Gunn has described Xolo Maridueña’s Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle as “the first DC character,” but what that means in terms of canon is wholly unclear. It’s possible that director Angel Manuel Soto’s movie will retroactively end up considered part of the new franchise in the works, or it’s possible that Maridueña will keep playing the hero, but his backstory/origin will change.
The future of Jamie Reyes is up in the air presently, and that obviously means that the future of the Ted Kord teased in the movie is up in the air as well. That being said, there is an avenue that could be used to keep Kord in play, and that’s the Booster Gold TV show that is presently in the works.
Booster Gold was among the upcoming DC TV titles that were announced when Gunn and Safran formalized DC Universe plans earlier this year, and it’s a significant project in this conversation because of the long established relationship between the titular character and Kord. In DC Comics, the time-traveling hero Booster Gold (a.k.a. Michael Jon Carter) and Kord’s Blue Beetle are good friends and partners, so it would make all kinds of sense that the characters would be paired up for the show.
This is a future that Angel Manuel Soto believes could come to fruition in the coming years. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, the filmmaker openly lauded the idea of having Booster Gold and the Ted Kord version of Blue Beetle come together in live action:
We all love Ted Kord and Booster Gold, and knowing that James Gunn also has plans for Booster Gold, it felt like the right thing for us to continue with. Ted Kord is still alive, he's somewhere out there in the universe, and whatever the future holds for our hero is open to interpretation. So, whether that is Booster Gold or Ted Kord or if it is both of them [together], the possibility exists and it is something that we want to entertain.
Booster Gold doesn’t have a release date or announced creatives attached yet. With Superman: Legacy not scheduled to hit theaters until July 2025, it may be a minute before we learn official updates about the project.
Speculation about the future of Blue Beetle (both Jamie Reyes and Ted Kord) will continue, but for now, audiences everywhere can enjoy the Blue Beetle movie, which is now playing in theaters everywhere. To learn more about all of the projects hitting the big screen based on DC Comics, check out our upcoming superhero movies guide.
