Blue Beetle Director Reveals DC Comics and Animation Influenced Film's Practical Suit

Blue Beetle is finally hitting theaters later this month, and it will be the first film that has been confirmed to take place in the rebooted DC Universe. DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn recently announced that Blue Beetle takes place in he and Peter Safran's DCU, and director Angel Manuel Soto has plans for more installments featuring the titular hero, but they will need to be successful at the box office in order for that to happen. Soto has been doing the press tour for the upcoming DC Comics adaptation, and he's revealing what inspired Blue Beetle's practical suit in the film.

Blue Beetle Director on Films Practical Superhero Suit

ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis recently had the chance to speak with Soto, and the Blue Beetle director revealed why the film has a practical costume and what inspired it. According to Soto, Blue Beetle's practical costume was inspired by comic books and various mediums of animation that feature the character.

"Well, it was a joint effort. Like, I think we knew of the bad that we didn't have all the resources to be fully dependent on the effects," Soto revealed to us. "And by doing so, we were like, we should just make a practical suit that really works. And that looks great. And we worked hand in hand with 9B Collective on the concept art and with Mayes C. Rubeo who designed this amazing suit and we were able to not only create it, but it looks awesome so that it only needs VFX enhancements but also something that Xolo can use on his martial arts stunts. So being able to have a suit that had the right materials for it to be flexible, for it to actually have the right response to light and the environment. It just made the whole process one that we could maximize our budget at the same times. It feels tangible.

"We knew that that stuff existed. So we didn't want to use it as a reference. We wanted to actually use as much as we could from the comic to sort of express what we could express in the film and in the comics and in the animation, you know, Blue Beetle, he has a mouth, we didn't do the mouth because maybe somebody finds a way of including the mouth to the Blue Beetle suit, but we didn't. We felt like, you know what, in the comic he has eye responses, so we can show emotion through his eyes. So we can definitely move that and you know, it's not a helmet per se. It's a suit, it envelops the mask. So if you thought it should have a little bit of jaw movement because it's not a helmet. So we were able to have fun and when we do the vision, we try to do our version of what's in the comics." The Blue Beetle director added.

What happens in Blue Beetle? 

DC Studios describes Blue Beetle as follows, "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 Super Hero Blue Beetle."

The Blue Beetle cast features Adriana Barraza (Rambo: Last Blood) as Jaime's grandmother, Nana; Damían Alcázar (Narcos) as his father, Alberto; Elpidia Carrillo (Mayans M.C.) as his mother, Bianca; Belissa Escobedo (Hocus Pocus 2) as his sister, Milagro; George Lopez (The George Lopez Show) as Jaime's Uncle Rudy; Bruna Marquezine (God Save the King) as Jenny Kord; Raoul Max Trujillo (Sicario) as the villain Carapax, the indestructible man; Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows) as Dr. Sanchez, and Susan Sarandon (Monarch) as Victoria Kord, sister of Ted Kord and CEO of Kord Industries. 

Blue Beetle will hit theaters on August 18th. Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for more updates on Blue Beetle and the future of DC Studios as we learn it! 

What do you think about Angel Manuel Soto's comments? Will you be heading to the theater when Blue Beetle is finally released? Let us know in the comments below or by hitting up our writer @NateBrail on Twitter!