DC Comics superhero Blue Beetle is getting a solo movie

The DC Extended Universe continues to expand. TheWrap reports that Charm City Kings director Angel Manuel Soto will direct a movie about the Blue Beetle, a superhero with a long history.

Blue Beetle isn’t the best-known hero the DC Comics stable, but he’s had his fair share of exposure over the years, particularly on TV shows like Young Justice. Or at least, the latest version of him has. The character began life as Dan Garrett, a police officer who uses experimental vitamins to develop super powers. That was in 1939 at Fox Comics. When Fox folded, Charlton Comics purchased the rights and reimagined Garrett as an archaeologist who gets his powers from ancient Egyptian technology. Later, it introduced a wholly new Blue Beetle in the form of athlete and inventor Ted Kord.

And then when Charlton folded in the ’80s, DC snapped up the rights, introducing Ted Kord into its universe during its Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. And the last step in our journey comes in 2006, during the Infinite Crisis crossover event. There we meet Jaime Reyes, a working class El Paso teenager who comes across the Blue Beetle scarab while walking home from school with his friends Paco and Brenda. Later, the scarab comes to life, attaches itself to Jaime’s spine, and gives him an extraterrestrial suit of armor that enhances his speed and strength. It can also create weapons, wings and shields.

Blue Beetle will be the first DC Comics movie with a Latino lead

And that’s the version of the Blue Beetle we’ll get in the movie, which means it’ll be the first DC Comics movie with a Latino lead. “It is an honor to direct Blue Beetle, the first Latino superhero film for DC,” Soto in a statement. “I want to sincerely thank everyone at Warner Bros. and DC for trusting me to bring Jaime Reyes to life. I can’t wait to make history together.”

There’s no word on when the Blue Beetle movie might come out. Marvel may be ahead of DC in the superhero cinematic arms race, but DC is doing its best to arm itself.

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