Report: ‘Blue Beetle’ To Feature Illegal Immigration Allegory
John F. Trent
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A new report details that the upcoming DC film, Blue Beetle, will feature an illegal immigration allegory.
Xolo Maridueña as Blue Beetle in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
This new report comes from MovieMaker that included commentary from the film’s director Angel Manuel Soto and actor Xolo Maridueña, who plays Jamie Reyes aka Blue Beetle.
The outlet notes, “Before the movie begins, the family has immigrated to America from Mexico, but [Jamie Reyes’ father] Alberto doesn’t have documentation, so he’s under the constant threat of deportation.”
They go on to note, “Though the film doesn’t depict an ICE raid, it does include a scene that echoes one. Kord Industries invades the family’s home in a scene that can play as just another dramatic moment in a superhero movie – or be taken as symbolic of events that tear apart real families.”
Xolo Maridueña as Blue Beetle in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
Soto commented on the allegory, “There is a history that exists before an ICE raid. A history that includes traveling miles, and danger, working hard, becoming a family, creating memories, and thinking that everything is going to be okay.”
“But all of a sudden, everything that you have fought for, everything that you have worked for, everything that you have built, is now burning. I needed the depiction to be triggering, because it’s the experience of many,” he continued.
Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) wears the Blue Beetle suit for the first time in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
It’s likely this allegory will have a racial component as well. Susan Sarandon, who plays Victoria Kord, in the film explained during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that her character represents the “white military industrial complex.”
She began, “What’s fabulous about [Blue Beetle] is it’s the first Latinx hero that has his own movie. Even better all of the Mexican — because his family is Mexican and all the actors were Mexican and it’s in Spanish so it’s subtitled.””
Sarandon then shared, “I’m, of course, the bad guy. I’m the white military industrial complex.”
“So I had a fabulous time because there’s nothing better than being bad,” she added.
Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
RELATED: New ‘Blue Beetle’ Trailer Ends With George Lopez’s Uncle Rudy Saying “Batman’s A Fascist”
The film is written by Gareth Dunnet-Alocer. It stars Xolo Maridueña, Adriana Barraza, Damían Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo, Bruna Marquezine, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, George Lopez, Belissa Escobedo, and Harvey Guillén.
The official description states, “Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab.”
“When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armor capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the Super Hero BLUE BEETLE,” it concludes.
George Lopez as Uncle Rudy and Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios
Blue Beetle is expected to arrive in theaters on August 18, 2023.
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