Thanks to Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash cratering at the box office and losing hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars for Warner Bros., the chances of Blue Beetle and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom suffering a similar fate has risen exponentially.
Through no fault of their own, the franchise’s remaining 2023 releases are fighting an uphill battle to convince audiences they’re worth watching, and history has shown in startling terms that paying customers are quickly losing interest in a property that’s on the cusp of being completely rebooted.
One positive is that James Gunn has already seemingly signified that Blue Beetle has a spot on the roster when Chapter 1: Gods & Monsters begins, although even if the worst case scenario unfolds, star Xolo Maridueña revealed to Empire that he’s confident he gets to wear the coolest suit in the entire DCU.
“The suit is just incredible. It’s the coolest suit there is. After watching the movie and seeing the CGI, I was like, ‘Alright, now it’s set in stone. It’s the coolest suit.’”
We admire his enthusiasm, but if the former HBO Max exclusive ends up following the DCU’s pattern and bombing at the box office, then “the coolest suit there is” might end up being something he has to wait a while to wear again. Of course, that all sounds awfully defeatist, but the sentiment is based on nothing but the superhero sandbox experiencing the law of diminishing returns on a level that would have sounded ludicrous even this time last year.
