Warning: Spoilers for Blue Beetle to follow
Its box office fate might end up being another story, but Blue Beetle‘s creative team has every reason to hold their heads high; though it’s arguably no grand task to lay claim to the high point of the DC Extended Universe, Ángel Manuel Soto’s expertly-woven superhero flick has all the ingredients the incoming DC Universe needs to soft-launch something special, whether that’s Xolo Maridueña’s star-making turn as Jaime Reyes, storytelling that’s several cuts above what we’re used to seeing from this side of the superhero genre, and, of course, one hell of a mid-credits scene.
The mid-credits scene in question revealed that Ted Kord, the original Blue Beetle before Jaime Reyes, is still alive, meaning we now have two conduits for whatever future cobalt-clad shenanigans Gunn and company have in store for us.
But where exactly might these adventures take place? Here’s where Blue Beetle, be it Jaime, Ted, or some combination of the two, could show up next in the Gunnverse.
Booster Gold
A quick glance at the slate for Chapter One: Gods and Monsters is all we need to pinpoint the most likely source of Blue Beetle’s reappearance, and that’s Booster Gold, the Max comedy series starring the eponymous, time-traveling embodiment of imposter syndrome himself.
Indeed, with Booster Gold being a longtime friend of Ted – and frequent ally of both Ted and Jaime – in the comics, it’s no great leap in logic to assume that that will be honored by the Max series. There are no plot details to support this at the time of writing, of course, but the history between the Beetles and Booster is all we need to be confident about this assumption.
The Brave and the Bold
In the comics, shortly after Jaime unwittingly fuses with Khaji-Da and becomes the Blue Beetle we know and love from the new film, one of the first characters he ends up teaming with is none other than Batman, where he aids the Dark Knight in taking down the Brother Eye satellite.
The two heroes are introduced to one another by Booster Gold, whose solo series we already know has the strongest chance of re-introducing Ted and Jaime to the DCU, so who’s to say that the mid-credits scene in Andy Muschietti’s The Brave and the Bold won’t feature Booster Gold rolling up to Batman with a young Jaime – one of Earth’s newest superheroes who’s starving for more action – in tow as the caped crusader prepares his next plan?
Ted’s notable history with Batman is also a worthy note here, but the one thing working against this possibility is that The Brave and the Bold will be based on Grant Morrison’s Batman comic run from 2006 to 2013, which Blue Beetle doesn’t get involved in. But then again, there’s a reason we specified the possibility of a mid-credits scene appearance. In any case, of the confirmed DCU films, The Brave and the Bold is the Beetle’s best shot at a comeback.
Lanterns
Buckle up, folks; we’re getting into tinfoil hat territory here.
We know that Lanterns, a detective series featuring Hal Jordan and John Stewart – two of the Green Lanterns – will see the two heroes investigate a mystery on Earth, the nuances of which will play an enormous role in the main storyline of the DCU.
In the monthly solo comic series featuring Jaime Reyes’ Blue Beetle, he learns that Khaji-Da’s contact with humans had a corrupting effect on it, rendering it out of control of the Reach, an ancient race of aliens responsible for creating the scarab.
He later learns from Guy Gardner – another Green Lantern who will be portrayed by Nathan Fillion in the franchise – that the Green Lantern Corps and the Reach used to be at war, and that the Reach was eventually forced to cease their militaristic efforts, but later covertly continued them, using the rogue scarab to infiltrate Earth as it rebuilt its more loyal artificial intelligence back up.
Is it possible, then, that the scarab just might be the very thing that Hal and John will be investigating in Lanterns, of which the subsequent implications could foreshadow a Countdown to Final Crisis-esque event that Gunn may or may not be leading up to? Well, only time will tell.
Peacemaker
This possibility would probably never amount to more than a cheeky cameo, but Jaime has teamed up with Peacemaker in the comics before, and with the second season of the high-flying, John Cena-led dark dramedy series having long been confirmed, that could very well be honored with a wave or two from the newest Blue Beetle.
Following his assisting Batman and squaring off with a corrupted Guy Gardner, some of the earliest moments of Jaime’s superhero career in the comics involved joining up with Peacemaker, with whom he took on challenges ranging from crime bosses to the aforementioned Reach empire.
It would probably be too tricky to squeeze in a major role for him, but who’s to say that Jaime won’t pop his head in the door during whatever plight Peacemaker and company find themselves in next season?
Justice League/Teen Titans
Okay, so you wouldn’t be totally off-base in saying that this is cheating a bit; not only is neither a Justice League or Teen Titans project publicly on the books for the DCU as of right now, but the sheer inevitability of Justice League at least – as well as Blue Beetle’s involvement with it – makes for too obvious a pick.
Indeed, there’s no way we won’t be getting a proper Justice League film from the Gunnverse, seeing as the team’s formation is one of the most important moments in the history of DC’s continuity. And while Ted Kord is more likely to be roped into the first iteration of the Justice League, who’s to say that Jaime’s experience with entering the superhero game at a young age won’t come in handy when the DCU’s Teen Titans come rolling around?
Should this all come true, the most obvious subsequent story beat would involve Ted Kord dying and Jaime taking his place in the Justice League – a state of affairs that would have quite the effect on Jaime, having lost his most important father figure (namely, his father) in Blue Beetle – but we were getting ahead of ourselves simply by mentioning a Justice League project; let’s just kick back, let Gunn do his thing, and happily drink in all the fresh comic book adaptation goodies he’ll be sending our way in due time.