A new Blue Beetle teaser has just dropped, and it centers around the casting of one of the central characters of the Blue Beetle mythos. In Blue Beetle, Xolo Maridueña plays Jaime Reyes, a young, Mexican-American man who finds Khaji-Da, an alien Scarab that gives him the ability to transform into an armored superhero.
As it turns out, the role of Khaji-Da will be played by Mexican-American singer and actress Becky G. The actress announced her role on Twitter, where she happily greeted fans with a friendly, “¡Que pasa, mi gente!” She then gave a short overview of Khaji-Da before showing off some clips of the movie:
In the comics, Khaji-Da is a sentient AI created by an alien civilization known as the Reach. Khaji-Da is part of their Scarab program – infiltrators sent ahead of the invasion force, designed to clear a path for conquest. The AI can therefore be a bit touchy, frequently identifying people close to Jaime as threats (as seen in the movie’s trailer). In true hero fashion, though, Jaime uses Khaji-Da for good. The two often bicker and discuss; since Khaji-Da is usually only heard by Jaime, this allows for Jaime to have a Spider-Man-esque internal monologue that most other characters are unaware of.
It looks like the film won’t quite go into this backstory, however. The film’s villains will actually be Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon), a character who’s the older sister of the second Blue Beetle in the comics, and Conrad Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo), also known as Carapax the Indestructible, a character with abilities similar to Blue Beetle.
Becky G’s casting reflects the film’s commitment to casting Latino and Latina actors and actresses. The movie is set to be the first live-action superhero film to star a Latino as its main character (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the first animated film to do so).
Though Latinos make up about 20 percent of the American public, historically there have been few roles for Latinos to take on. As such, it’s significant that a big studio like Warner Bros. is sticking to this commitment. In fact, back in September, Sarandon claimed that large portions of the film would be in Spanish, with English subtitles. Such a move is rare in America – usually, the perception is that foreign language films don’t bring in the crowds, but it’s clear that Latinos are able to make their voices heard like never before.
