For the first time ever, a live-action Latino superhero arrives from a major comicbook universe in BLUE BEETLE!

Desde Hollywood was invited to cover a Trailer Launch Event at Warner Bros., with director Angel Manuel Soto (“Charm City Kings,” “The Farm”), and Jaime Reyes himself, Xolo Maridueña (“Cobra Kai”).

The great cast also includes Adriana Barraza, Damían Alcázar, Elpidia Carrillo, Bruna Marquezine, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, George Lopez, Belissa Escobedo, and Harvey Guillén.

Read below some highlights from the Q&A portion of the event, with the talented, funny and insightful Latinos!

Maridueña on why the element of family is essential to this story.

Although we are telling this larger than life story, it felt really easy, especially with the help of the family to get those moments right. There wasn’t, our rehearsal days weren’t getting the lines right, it was talking as a family. Really just once that part locked into place, everything else kind of fell. The rest of the dominoes fell perfectly. I think it really is due in part to wanting the foundation of this movie. To want the soil to be really pure and wanting the hearts and souls of these characters to be three-dimensional. Once that was in place, everything else kind of melted away.

Soto on why this is a specific, but universal story for everybody.

Well, because I am like everybody. Xolo is like everybody. I’m as special as all of you. I’m not no less than anybody. My culture is not a buzzword. We exist and we coexist. For me, being able to integrate those things that makes us special, because the only thing that it does is, it’s a flavor. It’s like laughter. People laugh differently yet still laugh. So we grieve differently. We cry, we deal with loss differently, but still loss. So it’s always nice to see something that we are used to seeing a little bit with other superheroes that we love and we cherish. But what if we see it my way, our way, and invite the audience also to not feel repelled by it, come to the party.

XOLO MARIDUEÑA as Jaime Reyes in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure “BLUE BEETLE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/™ & © DC Comics.

Maridueña on the authenticity of the representation.

Although this was my first time being a superhero and coming into a character like this, as you’ll see in the movie, it can’t happen without the family. That’s a theme that I think, whether or not you’re Latino, it transcends ethnicity, it transcends color of skin, because that’s something that we can all relate from. I think that that’s really been the most exciting part, is that although it is undeniably or unapologetically Latino, everyone will understand Milagro (Belissa Escobedo).
Everyone understands Jaime because they’re people who we’ve interacted with in our daily life, and the problems that they’re facing are problems that we know. Maybe there’ll be room for the second or third one to do the crazy alien stuff, but the stuff that you see in this movie is, it’s all very tangible and it feels rooted in today’s world. It’s 110% right, because it’s the world that we know, plus a little bit extra.

Soto on why people should really see it in IMAX.

Cause IMAX is the shit! Honestly, it is the immersive aspect of it. At least I try to be as immersive as I can with the projects that I do. The scope of IMAX allows you to be swallowed whole into the frame. It almost feels, at least with my relationship with cinema, it’s very spiritual that way. So it almost feels like you can have a physical connection to it.
In the same way that we try our best to bring the audience in and come into this dance with the story and with the characters. IMAX is, it just makes it, it’s like if you’re dancing with your partner, and you could be in a ballroom with people, but when you’re dancing with your partner, it feels like you’re dancing with just them or you’re alone in the room with it. That’s what IMAX feels like to me.

Maridueña on how he is able to manage the attention and expectations.

I’d never been number one on the call sheet before, never done a movie before. But once I realized, I had a really great conversation with someone and they said, it’s not, the movie isn’t about you. It’s not about making Xolo the biggest thing yet. It’s not about what people are going to think of Xolo as an actor. Sorry for referencing myself in the third person, but it’s about opening the door. It’s about showing a group of people that you deserve to have your story being told too, and that you are just as important as stories that we’ve been seeing for years.

Once that clicked in my head, once I realized that it’s not about me and who cares what people think of Xolo, it’s about getting the door open, not only for Blue Beetle but for all of the other superheroes that deserve to have their stories told too. That was the key for me. And all of the nervousness, all of the social media stuff and what people think and what people like, all of that whisks away once you realize it’s not about any of that. That was, along with Angel, that was the biggest beacon for me, guiding me through the process.

XOLO MARIDUEÑA as Jaime Reyes in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure “BLUE BEETLE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/™ & © DC Comics.

Soto on why it is important to support a film like this one.

If you’ll help us and this movie becomes a massive fucking hit, we’re gonna see a lot of those. That’s what needs to happen. If we want to see more variety, and really celebrate differences, celebrate culture, celebrate other worlds. Because it’s fun. The only way is by supporting movies, right? Supporting a movie like this, because it’s, I said it before and I say it all the time, and you’re right, maybe it’s the Latino humbleness. I’m not sure of that or whatever, but this is not about me. This is not about Xolo. I don’t really care about me. What I care about is opening doors. In a world where people really crave taking people down, and I made them feel like all that bullshit, supporting each other is the only way we can tell different stories.

Not all of them are going to be perfect, but they’re going to exist. Being able to see other kids watch this movie or watch other movies and see themselves represented and say like, man, I want to tell a story about my community. And then that kid becomes an amazing writer. And then we’re going to see all those characters that you want to see because I want to see them too. I want to support that vision. But the only way is showing them that people want to see that. Let’s party!

BLUE BEETLE opens in theaters nationwide on August 18.

Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab. When the Scarab suddenly chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, he is bestowed with an incredible suit of armor capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the Superhero Blue Beetle.