This weeks Your Nerd Side Show:
Gunn shared a picture of himself and his DC partner Peter Safran at the Blue Beetle premiere on Instagram with the caption: "I can’t wait for audiences to meet Jaime Reyes, who will be an amazing part of the DCU going forward!" Amid the ongoing Hollywood strikes, Warner Bros. and DC Studios decided to premiere Blue Beetle with a fan screening, which was attended by Gunn and Safran, as well as the film's director, Ángel Manuel Soto.
This isn't the first time that Gunn has teased Blue Beetle's DCU future. During an interview with Michael Rosenbaum on his Inside of You podcast in June 2023, Gunn revealed that Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle would be the first DCU superhero that fans will meet while explaining that "the first full DCU movie" would still be Superman: Legacy, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel. Xolo Maridueña -- who portrays Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle in the film -- confirmed in an interview that he has met with Gunn and Safran about staying on as the character in the DCU, though he suggested that his tenure could be short-lived if Blue Beetle underperforms at the global box office.
Blue Beetle on Track to Dethrone Barbie at Box Office
Luckily for Maridueña, Blue Beetle is currently tracking to earn upwards of $32 million in its opening weekend. While that number is still on the lower end of opening weekends for DC films, it is vastly higher than last month's box office prediction for Blue Beetle, which had the film set to debut with a meager $17 million. In fact, if Blue Beetle hits the higher end of its current box office tracking, the film will easily top the weekend, knocking Barbie down to second place for the first time during its theatrical run. Barbie is looking at between $22 million and $24 million for its fourth weekend at the box office.
Jaime Reyes Becomes the Blue Beetle
The official synopsis for Blue Beetle reads as follows: "Recent college graduate 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 Super Hero BLUE BEETLE."
Blue Beetle hits theaters on Aug. 18.
Source: Instagram