We’ll tack this one up as just an innocent comment, but actor Xolo Maridueña recently made what some would consider a bit of a pop culture faux pas when discussing his title superhero character in the upcoming movie Blue Beetle.
During an interview with National Public Radio, Maridueña described Blue Beetle as a combination of a DC superhero and a Marvel superhero. “He’s kind of like a fusion of Green Lantern and Iron Man,” Maridueña said. “He has a scarab from outer space that is attached to his body called Khaji da.”
For some, associating superhero characters from rivals as big as DC and Marvel is like trying to mix oil and water. It would be like someone writing bad fanfiction where Luke Skywalker boards the Starship Enterprise. Or like someone wearing a pair of Bad Bunny Adidas sneakers and Nike socks. You just don’t do it.
Maybe Maridueña was thinking about the friendly rivalry he was teasing earlier this year between Blue Beetle and Marvel’s first Latine superhero El Muerto, who will be played by Bad Bunny. Either way, it’s an intriguing combination that could redefine DC and set it on a much-needed new path.
During the same interview with NPR, Blue Beetle director Angel Manuel Soto (Charm City Kings) discussed what he was feeling after Warner Bros. Discovery, the studio behind Blue Beetle, pulled the plug on the nearly finished superhero movie Batgirl this past summer.
“I’m not going to lie. There was concern, anger, fear at first,” Soto said. “[Studio exes] told me not to worry, [Blue Beetle] has their full support.”
Luckily, a few days after Batgirl was killed, insiders told The Hollywood Reporter that Blue Beetle was safe from the same fate.
Blue Beetle, starring Xolo Maridueña, is scheduled to hit theaters on August 18, 2023.