The Blue Beetle Movie Beefs Up Its Cast With Adriana Barraza, George Lopez & More
After it was announced that "Blue Beetle" would be pivoting away from HBO Max and heading into theaters, it became clear that Warner Bros. had some big plans for DC's first Latino superhero film. "Cobra Kai's" Xolo Maridueña (below) will star as Jaime Reyes, a high school student who becomes the Blue Beetle after coming in contact with an alien scarab. Angel Manuel Soto ("Dinner Party," "Charm City Kings") is directing the film from a script by writer Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer ("Contrapelo," "Miss Bala"), and now the cast has added even more promising talent.
According to a report from The Wrap, in addition to the previously announced Bruna Marquezine, Belissa Escobedo, and Harvey Guillén, cast members for "Blue Beetle" now include Academy Award nominee Adriana Barraza (seen above in"Bingo Hell"), comedian George Lopez, Elpidia Carrillo ("Predator") and Damián Alcázar ("The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian").
With this casting announcement, the Reyes family is now complete. Barraza is playing Nana, Lopez has been tapped to play the role of Uncle Rudy, Carrillo will be playing Rocio, and Alcázar is playing Alberto. This all falls in line with Soto's intention to authentically portray the multigenerational Reyes family using Mexican and Mexican-American actors. The filmmaker told Variety:
"The only thing that is on my mind right now is just the fact that he's Latino. I have so much pride in getting to be a part of this project with Angel, someone like him. I think it's so important, and I don't want to stand on the soapbox for too long but representation is so important."
Soto wants to tell the story with authenticity
"Initially, my goal with finding the family was to be able to have an authentic group of people, not just as authentic on the Latino side, but authentic on the accents and authentic on the experience overall, it was very important for me to have the elders in the family to be from Mexico," Soto told The Wrap. "And more than just being from Mexico is honoring those amazing beloved actors from Mexico that have paved the way not just in Latin American cinema, but also crossing over to the Anglo Saxon community and Latin American community in the United States."
Soto also felt it vital to marry the generational differences between the immigrant and Mexican-American generations. He added:
"You have somebody on the younger side, the new blood that's coming in, like Belissa [Escobedo] and Xolo [Maridueña], they're Mexican-American, and tying them with the guys that came before which have a strong history of being born in Mexico and then coming over to the US. Being able to provide a Mexican family, a brown Mexican family, that embraces that level of authenticity, I think this cast allowed us to have all of that."
"Blue Beetle" is set to be released theatrically on Aug. 18, 2023.