The following contains spoilers for Blue Beetle, in cinemas now.
Blue Beetle director Angel Manuel Soto recently downplayed the severity of the production’s reshoots, insisting no substantial changes were made to the DC Universe blockbuster’s story.
Soto discussed Blue Beetle‘s additional photography in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “To be honest, we didn’t add anything that wasn’t in the script already,” he said. “We shot things that were in the script, but we just didn’t have time to do them [during principal photography]. In order for me to finish the movie, we needed those extra days. So they weren’t necessarily reshoots, but we did reshoot one scene to make it tighter. Everything else was a lot of the backstory that was very important to the story and Raoul Max Trujillo’s character [Carapax]. It was very important for me to tell the backstory of our villain, and that was pretty much the reason why we continued shooting. So I don’t call it reshoots; it was just finishing what was promised to me.”
In the same interview, Soto shed further light on Blue Beetle‘s Carapax origin story scenes. Notably, the filmmaker revealed that his version of Ignacio Carapax/OMAC was inspired by Batman villain Bane, a character he previously planned to make a movie about. Soto added that Carapax and Bane are potentially both the product of “the same [CIA] experiments” and suggested that the pair may have crossed paths off-screen. At the same time, he was quick to note that Bane’s backstory is nevertheless “very different” to Carapax’s own history, despite both supervillains being “victims of historical exploitation.”
Blue Beetle Director on the Movie’s Mid-Credits Scene
Whether Soto will ever get the chance to realize his vision for a Bane solo outing remains to be seen, although the director appears primarily focused on the Blue Beetle franchise for the time being. Soto has touched on the possibility of Blue Beetle 2 in several interviews since the film’s release on Aug. 18, placing particular emphasis on the storytelling potential of Blue Beetle‘s mid-credits scene. This scene confirms that Blue Beetle protagonist Jaime Reyes’ Blue Beetle predecessor Ted Kord is still alive — a revelation that Soto indicated could be addressed in either a follow-up film or the upcoming Booster Gold TV series.
Soto even has an actor in mind for the Ted Kord role: Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis. “My dream cast[ing] for Ted Kord has always been Jason Sudeikis,” he said in a recent interview. “But at the end of the day, it’s about who’s best for the character, who loves what we’re trying to do. And who’s willing to see Jaime Reyes’ story continue.”
Source: THR