2023 is set to be a big year for DC movies, with the lineup now seeing Shazam! Fury of the Gods arrive first, followed by The Flash, then Blue Beetle and finally Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Unfortunately, Batgirl will not be joining them, as Warner Bros. Discovery cancelled it several weeks back. Now Blue Beetle star Xolo Maridueña has given his thoughts on the Leslie Grace-led feature not seeing the light of day.
It was a little over a year ago that Xolo Maridueña, best known for playing Miguel Diaz in the hit Netflix show Cobra Kai, confirmed he’d been cast as Jaime Reyes in Blue Beetle. Along with Maridueña plugging the soon-to-arrive fifth season of Cobra Kai and his work on Blue Beetle with THR, the outlet asked him what his reaction was to learning Batgirl had been scrapped. He answered:
It obviously feels very close, right? Warner Brothers and Beetle. But I think everything that has to be said on the topic has been spoken from [those involved]. I think the creators and Leslie said everything that had to be said.
Xolo Maridueña is choosing his words carefully here, instead choosing to let the comments from Leslie Grace and Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah about the movie’s cancellation speak for themselves. Still, reading between the lines, it sounds like Maridueña’s sympathetic to what they’ve gone through, he just doesn’t feel the need to get spell out his opinion on the matter. It’s worth noting that like Batgirl, Blue Beetle was once expected to be released exclusively to HBO Max subscribers, but in December, it was announced that Blue Beetle been changed to a theatrical release.
Batgirl was cancelled alongside Scoob! Holiday Haunt at the beginning of August despite the fact that both movies were deep into post-production. With Batgirl, which had a reported production budget of $90 million, Warner Bros. Discovery decided to take a tax break on the movie rather than pour additional money so it could be released in theaters. Batgirl “funeral screenings” have been held for its cast and crew, as well as representatives and executives, to watch the footage, but after that, it’ll be locked away. While there had been concerns about if Blue Beetle could follow in Batgirl’s footsteps and be scrapped, it sounds like the Xolo Maridueña-led movie is safe and still on track to arrive in summer 2023.
As far as Blue Beetle goes, like his comic book counterpart, Xolo Maridueña’s Jaime Reyes will bond to an extraterrestrial scarab that forms high-tech armor around him packed with different kinds of weapons and defensive capabilities. The Blue Beetle cast also includes Bruna Marquezine, Belissa Escobedo, George Lopez, Harvey Guillén, Susan Sarandon, Adriana Barraza, Elpidia Carrillo, Damián Alcázar and Raoul Trujillo. Charm City Kings’ Angel Manuel Soto directed the movie and Miss Bala’s Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer wrote the script.
Blue Beetle is set to be released on August 18, 2023, although if it ends up being delayed or even moves up in the schedule of upcoming DC movies, we’ll let you know. People with a Netflix subscription can Xolo Maridueña in Cobra Kai Season 5 starting September 9.
