Blue Beetle post-credits scene explained: Director shares hopes for DCU's future
Warning: This article contains spoilers from Blue Beetle.
Blue Beetle director Ángel Manuel Soto always thought of his film as the first of a saga — "the third act of a bigger story," the filmmaker tells EW. "This is a presentation of [Xolo Maridueña's] Jaime, his family, his community, his values." And just to signal to audiences that there is plenty more to be explored with this character, should the powers that be greenlight a sequel, Soto included a mid-credits scene that has larger implications for the future of the DCU.
Moviegoers met Jaime Reyes, the first Latino comic-book character to get their own live-action superhero movie treatment, as a college grad who returns home to the fictional Palmera City to find his family in dire economic straits. Jaime's job hunt leads him to Kord Industries, where he haphazardly comes into possession of the Scarab, a piece of ancient alien technology that fuses with Jamie, claiming him as its new host and transforming him into the Blue Beetle.
Soto didn't want anything to detract from this standalone story, which saw Jaime and his family fighting to stop Susan Sarandon's Victoria Kord, Raoul Max Trujillo's Carapax, and Harvey Guillén's Dr. Sanchez from using the Scarab to create devastating artillery. "We didn't want anybody to take away from the first time that we were able to see a Latino family represented [onscreen]," he remarks. At the same time, he realized the film didn't have the same kind of closure for the character of Jenny Kord (Bruna Marquezine). That's where the mid-credits scene came in. (There is a proper post-credits scene at the very end, but it's a fun extension of the cartoon shown earlier in the film.)
Warner Bros. Pictures Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes in 'Blue Beetle'
Kord's father, Ted Kord, was the previous head of Kord Industries and the previous hero to bear the moniker of Blue Beetle. Unlike Jaime, however, he was not the Scarab's chosen host. Instead, he used his wealth and access to technology to essentially Batman himself into a superhero — albeit one who was far clumsier than the Dark Knight. Ted eventually disappeared under mysterious circumstances and was presumed dead, allowing Victoria to take over the company and transform it into a corporatized military machine. It's been years now since he vanished, so Jenny gives Jaime and the Reyes' access to her father's secret base of operations and all his Blue Beetle gadgets.
The mid-credits scene reveals that, with this hidden bunker now activated, Ted is able to transmit a message, confirming that he's alive and in need of help. However, no one is in the base to hear the cry for help. "We had it written down [in the script]. We knew that was what we wanted our story to have," Soto says of the scene.
There are multiple avenues the DCU could explore next, now that Ted Kord is alive. Soto makes reference to the hero Booster Gold. In the early Blue Beetle comics, Ted would regularly participate in get-rich-quick schemes with Booster Gold, which kickstarted decades of stories for the two characters. Booster also happens to be a time traveler, which suggests the possibility that the Ted of Blue Beetle could be lost somewhere in time.
"We all love Ted Kord and Booster Gold, and knowing that James Gunn also has plans for Booster Gold, it felt like the right thing for us to continue with," Soto says, referring to the planned Booster Gold TV series in the works as part of the new phase of the DCU from DC Studios co-heads Gunn and Peter Safran. "Ted Kord is still alive, he's somewhere out there in the universe, and whatever the future holds for our hero is open to interpretation. So, whether that is Booster Gold or Ted Kord or if it is both of them [together], the possibility exists and it is something that we want to entertain."
DC Comics Booster Gold and Blue Beetle of DC Comics
A Blue Beetle sequel has not yet been confirmed by Warner Bros., and Ted Kord has not been announced as a character for the Booster Gold series. However, Gunn has made clear that he wants the character of Jaime to be a part of DCU's future. Beyond the potential for a Booster Gold team-up, Soto hopes to one day go off and explore the relationship between Jaime and the Scarab, a.k.a. the voice of Khaji-Da (Becky G).
"You know, where Khaji comes from," he elaborates. "Let's see if we end up beating up the Reach at one point." The Reach is an alien race of conquerors from the comics with deep ties to the Scarab and Blue Beetle. They featured heavily in the Young Justice animated series (available to stream on Max), which featured a prominent story arc for the Jaime character that Soto also used as inspiration for this first film. "For me," he says, "it's expansive and the opportunities are so exciting."
Soto is grateful that Gunn and Safran gravitated toward Blue Beetle, considering all the obstacles they overcame. The film was once planned for release on HBO Max (now just Max), and then there was a fear of getting canceled as parent company Warner Bros. Discovery shelved multiple projects, including Batgirl and the Wonder Twins.
"The stuff that we created years ago was able to withstand three regime changes [at WBD], threats of cancellation and all the other chaotic moments that feel so far away but wasn't so far away," he acknowledges. Knowing that, and also how personal and specific Latino culture is to the film, the fact that Blue Beetle resonated enough with Gunn and Safran, "it's amazing," Soto adds. "It's a validation that tells us we did the right thing, we took the right swings, and maybe we can always get better and learn for the next ones, but our legacy, this movie is part of this [DC] world. It's something I never knew could happen."
Blue Beetle is now playing in theaters.
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