The DCEU · Connected
Blue Beetle
Jaime Reyes bonds with an alien scarab that chooses him as its host.
Two scenes during the credits
Availability changes by country and by week, so this searches JustWatch rather than guessing.
Can you skip Blue Beetle?
Yes, on a first watch. It is self-contained, and nothing in the main DC story depends on it. What it does leave behind is two scenes during the credits. In chronological order, reaching it takes about 32h 21m of essential viewing across 15 titles. Show only the DC essentials.
Skippable, and it is the DCEU film most worth rescuing from its circumstances. It was released in the last weeks of a continuity everybody knew was ending, with no marketing momentum and nothing riding on it, and it is a perfectly decent film.
What distinguishes it is the family. A recent graduate comes home to find his parents about to lose their house, and when the alien artefact attaches itself to him his entire extended household is in the room for it and stays involved for the rest of the picture. The grandmother with a revolutionary past and the uncle with conspiracy theories are played straight rather than as comic relief, and the film's most affecting scene is a death handled without a fight around it.
It is the first DC film with a Latino lead and the texture is specific rather than decorative: the Spanish is unsubtitled in places, the house matters, and the villain is a defence contractor displacing a neighbourhood. Susan Sarandon plays her as pure boardroom.
The suit effects are mid-budget and the third act is a generic facility with a rival in armour. Nothing requires it and it stands alone completely.
DC guides
Where it sits in the DC order
- Release order
- #36 of 52
- Chronological order
- #35 of 52
- Released
- 18 August 2023
- In-universe era
- The DCEU
What to watch next
In release order
In chronological order