Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: blue beetle, movies, Warner Bros

Blue Beetle: George Lopez, Adriana Barraza, And More Join the Cast

It looks like the cast for Blue Beetle continues to grow, which means that they are either in production or getting ready to kick off production. The latest round of castings more or less fills out the rest of Jamie's family unit, which is an essential element of the story they are looking to tell. According to The Wrap, comedian George Lopez, Academy Award nominee Adriana Barraza, Elpidia Carrillo, and Damián Alcázar have all reportedly joined the cast. Lopez is set to play Uncle Rudy while Barraza plays Nana, Carrillo plays Rocio, and Alcázar plays Alberto. Director Angel Manuel Solo spoke about how important it was when it came to casting the members of Jamie's family.

"Initially, my goal with finding the family was to be able to have an authentic group of people, not just as authentic on the Latino side, but authentic on the accents and authentic on the experience overall, it was very important for me to have the elders in the family to be from Mexico," Soto tells TheWrap. "And more than just being from Mexico is honoring those amazing beloved actors from Mexico that have paved the way not just in Latin American cinema, but also crossing over to the Anglo Saxon community and Latin American community in the United States."

Soto added: "And then you have somebody on the younger side, the new blood that's coming in, like Belissa and Xolo, they're Mexican American, and tying them with the guys that came before which have a strong history of being born in Mexico and then coming over to the US. Being able to provide a Mexican family, a brown Mexican family, that embraces that level of authenticity, I think this cast allowed us to have all of that."

Blue Beetle was first announced in November of 2018, but like many DC projects in early development, we didn't get much information about it right off the bat. In fact, we didn't hear much of anything until February of last year when it was announced that Angel Manuel Soto signed on to direct and that production on the movie would begin in early 2022. From there, we knew that things would move a little faster. In June of 2021, we finally got our first major casting announcement as Xolo Maridueña was first rumored to be in talks for the role of Jaime Reyes, and his casting was later confirmed in August of last year.

During DC FanDome, we got a piece of concept art, and we got a short panel as well. At the end of 2021, Blue Beetle was changed from an HBO Max exclusive release to a theatrical release and given an August 18, 2023 date. The production has been chugging along since the new year started, and it looks like they are getting ready to kick things off soon. That makes sense considering the release date and the time they are going to need for post-production. Earlier in March, Bruna Marquezine, Belissa Escobedo, and Harvey Guillén all joined the cast. Marquezine is set to play Penny, the female lead and love interest to Maridueña's Jamie Reyes. Escobedo will play Jamie's younger sister, Milagros, while Guillén's role remains unknown. Maridueña spoke at the end of last year about how important he believes this movie is going to be in terms of representation and, as of December, they had done two suit fittings.

It's gonna be important, not only for Latinos and to see people of color, brown people, represented onscreen, but also show a story that we haven't really seen before.

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