James Gunn All But Confirms Blue Beetle For DCU: “He And Peacemaker Kind Of Just Fit In Very Nicely”
It looks like Peacemaker may not be the only hero to survive the collapse of the Snyderverse – or, interestingly enough, the only one to trace their comic book origin to Charlton Comics – as DC Studios Co-CEO James Gunn has given the strongest tease yet that the alien-powered Blue Beetle will eventually set-up shop in the new DCU.
Gunn offered this tease during a recent interview given to Rotten Tomatoes regarding his retconning of Peacemaker’s first season finale.
In the original version of the episode, which fell squarely in the now-defunct DCEU, the titular anti-hero emerges from his harrowing defeat of the Butterflies to the arrival of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, who he then criticizes for being far too late to be of any help.
However, in seeking to firmly establish the show in the new DCU, its Season 2 premiere confirms that going forward, canon holds that this event actually unfolded between Peacemaker and the various heroes from Superman, including the Justice Gang, Supergirl, and Big Blue himself.
Pressed by Rotten Tomatoes as to his rationale for bringing the peace-loving Christopher Smith into the DCU, Gunn explained:
“Peacemaker was always in a weird place – You know, people say he was part of the DCEU – but he wasn’t really.
“He was a part of this in-between universe of DC when there was nobody really making sure everything was connected, and at a time when they were going to rewrite everything with The Flash.
“[Because of this] We were kind of able to do whatever we wanted. And we had that brash ending, which I loved. It was one of my favorite things in the whole season, but it just didn’t fit in with the DCU.”
And it was then, in bringing his point home, that Gunn dropped the latest update regarding Blue Beetle’s cinematic future:
“And with Peacemaker, there’s hardly anything that you need to change for him to slide very easily into the DCU; Same with Blue Beetle.
“They just kind of just fit in very nicely. But maybe we have to retcon a couple of things, but this was the big one.”
Notably, this is not the first time Gunn has hinted at Jamie Reyes continuing on in his adventures post-DCEU.
In his initial unveiling of the DCU’s launch roadmap, the filmmaker described the then-still-upcoming Blue Beetle as “a fantastic film about a kid who’s a marvelous part of the DCU” before declaring during a later appearance on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast that, “The first DCU character for sure is Blue Beetle, the first full DCU movie is Superman“.
Further, Gunn was not the only individual related to DC’s past-and-or-present film plans to have suggested that Jamie Reyes would continue to suit-up post-DCEU.
Asked by Total Film as to whether the actual Blue Beetle film, which like Peacemaker was developed and released within the DCEU’s ‘limbo’ period, had any chance of a continuation in Gunn’s then-recently announced DCU, director Angel Manuel Soto confidently asserted, “We are part of the universe, we are part of the world, we are part of the plans that they have been creating for the future instalments of the DCU.”
“But we are not tied to all the films from the past. Yes, our movie lives in the world where superheroes exist. But that doesn’t mean that a certain event, or certain alliance, or certain things from the past dictate where our film is going.”
However, these plans would soon hit some sort of snag, as when asked by Fandango if he’d “had any conversations with James Gunn about the future of Blue Beetle” following his solo film’s theatrical release, the actor who portrayed the bug-themed hero, Xolo Maridueña, pumped the brakes on the hype train:
“I have had the please of getting to speak with Mr. James Gunn and the whole DC fam. And, you know, at the end of the day I think, you know, first, we have to cross this first hill and introduce Jaime to the world.”
“But I think it’s up to the audience to watch the movie. It’s up everyone to show up for the movie and it’s so wonderful that we get to make movies like and if it does well we’ll get to open more doors for more Blue Beetles and not even just for the people up here, but we’ve got a whole thing set up. So many Beetles to choose from. So many comics to choose from and really just a whole world.”
All in all, it seems like where once he was shunted into a second limbo, Blue Beetle will soon be making his way to the DCU.
