Blue Beetle is based on the DC Comics character and hails from Charm City Kings director Angel Manuel Soto. Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer penned the script.
Maridueña’s Blue Beetle is particularly notable, as he will be one of the few holdover characters to be part of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s upcoming DC Universe. Gunn and Safran are plotting an entirely new slate after taking over as DC Studios co-bosses in November, with their first film set to be Superman: Legacy (due out in July 2025). Though Blue Beetle was made as part of the previous regime’s plans, Gunn has said that this version of the character will continue on.

“We are part of the universe, we are part of the world, we are part of the plans that they have been creating for the future installments of the DCU,” Soto confirmed last month.

Blue Beetle was initially slated as an HBO Max release, back when DC was plotting movies for the now-defunct streaming service. It was upgraded to theatrical and is dated for Aug. 18. The film comes as DC has experienced a string of misses, most recently with The Flash, and Warners is hoping for better outcomes for Beetle as well as December’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the final DC film made in the pre-Gunn/Safran era.

“The family aspect to this movie and to the character is inherent to the comics and so special,” Maridueña told The Hollywood Reporter last year. “The family we’ve been able to create in the movie — the mom, dad, uncle, sister, grandmother — I feel like that aspect of being a superhero hasn’t been tapped into a ton.”