There’s been some confusion regarding the ins and outs of Blue Beetle‘s canonical status, which is understandable when James Gunn oxymoronically confirmed that while the upcoming movie isn’t part of his DCU overhaul, title hero Jaime Reyes is the first costumed crimefighter to be a part of it.
Gunn’s own Superman: Legacy has been anointed as the latest rebrand’s first feature-length blockbuster, and that naturally led many to question how a character that’s part of an existing franchise can be absorbed into another one when the likes of Black Adam, Shazam, Superman, Batman, and the Flash in any of their current iterations won’t be.
As it turns out, director Angel Manuel Soto revealed to ComicBook that the solution is as simple as it is sneaky; name-drop as many well-known heroes as you want, just make sure you don’t go too far and confirm who plays them and what reality they exist in.
“I think that’s the beauty of it, right? I think it’s pretty vague. We know Batman exists. We know Flash exists. We know Superman exists, but we don’t say how, where or what. I think it opens up the doors to any interpretation or any direction James Gunn wants to go and because it is setting Jaime up, what happens now moving forward is game. I think that’s why they decided Jaime can be the first superhero of the new DCU because he is his own hero.”
Technically, does that mean the contentious “Batman is a fascist” line applies not to Ben Affleck’s Caped Crusader, but the person set to eventually be cast in the Gunn-backed reboot The Brave and the Bold? That’s another question for another time, but at least we know Blue Beetle hasn’t been pigeonholed.