Given how many major comic book characters Warner Bros. has access to, the DCEU can hardly be blamed for mostly keeping its focus on figures who’ll be familiar to your average viewer, but with this newly announced Blue Beetle film, the studio looks set to break from that habit while also providing us with the first major Latino superhero movie lead.
The Wrap reports that Miss Bala scribe Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer is working on the script for a film that will focus on the Jaime Reyes version of the character, with Colossal and Killer Joe‘s Zev Foreman on producing duties. For those unfamiliar with this particular DC saga, Reyes is just one of three people to assume the Blue Beetle name in the comics, inheriting the title after Dan Garret and Ted Kord.
The story goes that Jaime developed his powers after taking home a mysterious scarab that ended up grafting itself to the base of his spine, providing him with a bright blue suit of armor and some fantastical abilities. The character made his comic book debut in 2006 with Infinite Crisis, and has since popped up in a few TV shows, including the next season of Young Justice.
Seeing how the DCEU has had trouble enough keeping audiences enthusiastic about such famous figures as Batman and Superman, we’re curious to find out how the studio fares in creating interest around one of their lesser-known heroes. Either way, you can imagine that the news of a Latino character taking the lead is going to earn this outing a fair amount of positive buzz. We’re still a long way off from seeing Blue Beetle reach our screens, of course, but we’re definitely keen to learn more.