Xolo Maridueña is finally talking about his Blue Beetle return — out loud, on camera — and now we know how he found out: a surprise call from James Gunn while he was overseas with friends who couldn’t know a thing.
“We’re back, baby,” Maridueña told Variety on the red carpet for Practical Magic 2, his first real comments since the news broke in July that Jaime Reyes returns in the Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow.
“I was in Japan with my friends. Nobody knew anything,” Maridueña said. “And I just see, like, the Bat-phone — my phone rings: James Gunn. All of my friends look at me… I had to leave the room, and I came back and I was like, ‘Off the record, don’t tell anyone, but we’re coming back.’ I’m so excited for people to see where Blue Beetle ends up.”
He also admitted he didn’t know if that call would ever come after 2023’s Blue Beetle.
“There’s never a guarantee with anything, bro,” he said. “Stuff flips on a dime, and I know that it’s not always like a merit-based system. There’s so much that’s out of my control, but I am just the most humbled of James and the greater DC team for folding us in, Indiana Jones style.”
The secrecy apparently extends to the red carpet, too.
Asked whether it felt like slipping back into the suit, Maridueña played dumb — “What do you mean by that?” — before allowing, “I’m sure it’ll be great when it happens.” Blue Beetle is giving nothing away.
“Folding Us In” Is Exactly What Insiders Described
Scooper Daniel Richtman broke Blue Beetle’s return on July 14 and TheWrap confirmed within hours (our story); days later Maridueña winked at fans with never-before-seen BTS images while DC Studios said nothing official. Still hasn’t.
And recall what our insiders said back on July 8: expect big cameos and fan service because this “could be it” for Gunn — a script “Frankensteined” from previous ideas, shot with a loose outline that lets him keep bolting on characters.
Now the actor himself describes exactly that: cold-called out of nowhere mid-production, sworn to secrecy, and “folded in, Indiana Jones style.”
Same insiders, same track record. Their endgame hasn’t changed: once Paramount takes over, expect Gunn and Safran to “step down to focus on Man of Tomorrow,” the stuffed last hurrah, with Blue Beetle one more name folded in along the way.
Man of Tomorrow sees David Corenswet’s Superman team with Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor against Brainiac. It opens July 9, 2027. Everything we know is here.
