DC’s Blue Beetle moviewill reportedly head straight to streaming

Warner Bros. and DC Films are reportedly planning to send Blue Beetle straight to streaming rather than giving the DCEU movie a theatrical release.

The Los Angeles Times published a report about Warner Bros.’ movie plans, specifically the company’s release strategy in light of the merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery.

Interestingly, it included a snapshot of the films being made exclusively for HBO Max, and listed Blue Beetle as one of the “mid-budget DC movies on the way for streaming,” along with the studio’s Batgirl project.

Towards the end of last year, Warner Bros. announced an industry-shaking approach to distributing its films in 2021, revealing that all 17 of its theatrically released movies for the calendar year would be released onto HBO Max the same day that they premiered in theaters, and that the titles would remain on the streaming service for a one-month exclusive window following their initial debuts.

Films like Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat helped to drive more customers to HBO Max and ultimately keep people from canceling their subscriptions, so it’s perhaps no surprise that Warner Bros. plans to accelerate its DC movie release schedule, with as many as four new movies hitting theaters each year (starting in 2022) and an additional two “riskier” movies debuting on HBO Max.

As The New York Times previously reported, DC Films president Walter Hamada named Batgirl and Static Shock as two likely candidates for streaming, with both projects reportedly falling in the sub-$65 million budget range, but now it seems like Blue Beetle will be joining them. The film will focus on Mexican-American teen Jaime Reyes, the third character to adopt the Blue Beetle name.

Blue Beetle has appeared in several animated series, including Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Young Justice. The DC hero is also set to appear in a new DC animated film sometime in 2022, along with three other DC animated shorts that have been announced. All of these films are being produced by Rick Morales, who previously worked on Mortal Kombat: Scorpion’s Revenge.

Source: ign.com