Cobra Kai's Xolo Maridueña is in talks for the lead role in DC's Blue Beetle for HBO Max. The film is set to be DC's first project to center on a Latino superhero.
Maridueña is best known for playing Miguel Diaz on the hit Netflix series Cobra Kai. If the deal officially goes through, this would be Maridueña's highest-profile gig to date. Angel Manual Soto, who directed the 2020 Sundance coming-of-age drama Charm City Kings, is tapped to helm the HBO Max DC adaptation while Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer will take on screenwriting duties. Alcocer is best known for writing Miss Bala and with Gina Rodriguez and the upcoming Scarface reboot.
Blue Beetle, along with the upcoming Batgirl movie, is one of several projects from the DC catalog that will be made exclusively to be streamed on HBO Max. The idea is that mid-tier characters from the DC canon will be suitable for the HBO Max because it can serve as promotion for the streaming service while being a bit of a low-risk endeavor over a big-screen adaptation. While there have been multiple iterations of Blue Beetle in the comic books, the film will be focusing on Jaime Reyes, an El Paso teen who used alien armor granted by a strange artifact to defend his hometown. The Jaime Reyes version of the character debuted in the comic in 2006 and is credited to creators Keith Giffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hamner.
Do you think Xolo Maridueña is the right choice for Blue Beetle? Production on the film is expected to start in early 2022.