DC Films and director Angel Manuel Soto (Charm City Kings) continue to fill out the cast of their Blue Beetle movie, having cast the family of Xolo Maridueña’s (Cobra Kai) title character, the Mexican-American teenager Jamie Reyes.
Joining the previously announced Harvey Guillen (What We Do In the Shadows), Bruna Marquezine (Breaking Through) and Bellisa Escobedo (American Horror Stories) are George Lopez (No Man’s Land) as Uncle Rudy, Adriana Barraza (Babel) as Nana, Elpidia Carrillo (Euphoria) as Rocio and Damián Alcázar (Narcos) as Alberto.
“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,” states Soto. “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.”
“And then you have somebody on the younger side, the new blood that’s coming in, like Belissa and Xolo, 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,” Soto continued. “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.”
Debuting in 2006’s Infinite Crisis comic book event, the Jamie Reyes incarnation of Blue Beetle is a teenager who discovers an alien scarab that bonds to his spine, providing him with a suit of extra-terrestrial armor that he uses to fight crime.
Blue Beetle is set for release on August 18th 2023.
Via The Wrap
