Blue Beetle fans, dubbing themselves the Blue Beetle Battalion, have taken it upon themselves to promote and advocate for the film in what is one of the most heartwarming fan campaigns we’ve seen in a while. Fan campaigns are pretty common and generally see fans attempting to save a canceled show/film, bring back a character, or have a director’s cut released. However, the Battalion is very unique in that these fans are uniting simply to promote the new superhero film. They’re coming from a wholly selfless place, not expecting to get anything out of the campaign other than to allow the film to get the attention it deserves.
It’s unclear when this grassroots marketing campaign first started, but it was fully formed and gaining attention by July 14, when Blue Beetle’s lead star, Xolo Maridueña, gave the Battalion a shoutout. Maridueña explained in a video that he would not be promoting Blue Beetle in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA strike. However, he praised the Blue Beetle Battalion for their efforts and encouraged them to keep promoting the film for him.
Since before the start of the strike, the Battalion has rallied to promote the film, and their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. Blue Beetle‘s first official trailer garnered a whopping 26 million views on YouTube, seven million more views than The Flash’s official trailer received after its huge marketing campaign from Warner Bros. and a Super Bowl trailer release. Additionally, the Battalion has nabbed coverage from several media outlets and gotten #BlueBeetleBattalion trending on Twitter multiple times in the past month. These fans have inundated Twitter with retweets of the trailer and fan art. They even went viral for hilariously creating fake merchandise, cameos, and endorsements for the film when they noticed a lack of promotional materials.
The Battalion is on fire, but the campaign goes a whole lot deeper than just being fans of the superhero.
We need more of the Blue Beetle Battalion’s energy
The Battalion’s efforts are especially heartwarming given the circumstances surrounding Blue Beetle. Even before the SAG-AFTRA strike began, fans were fearful that Warner Bros. wouldn’t treat the film well. Considering the cancellation of Batgirl and unrelenting praise for The Flash, the studio has shown a preference for its bigger and overused superhero names. Blue Beetle is a more obscure hero from DC Comics, and the film was initially slated for an exclusive streaming release, making it likely that fewer resources were put aside for marketing. On top of that, the SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14, meaning that none of the actors from Blue Beetle could promote the film as they withheld labor until studios agreed to pay their workers fairly.
Further proving Warner Bros.’ attitude towards Blue Beetle was its decision to go ahead and release the film on its scheduled date instead of delaying it until after the strike. The studio, which is prolonging the strike with its greed, seemingly decided it didn’t care that the lack of promotion might impact the film’s performance and its chances to spawn further projects.
Meanwhile, promotion was especially important for Blue Beetle because it’s a rare Latino-led superhero film. This is a huge victory for a community that has long struggled with underrepresentation and misrepresentation in film, and Maridueña himself has called the film “unapologetically Latino.”
Debuting the DCU’s first Latino hero and highlighting a multi-generational Latino family on the big screen is no small feat, and it’s heartbreaking that the actors on this project can’t promote the groundbreaking work they’ve done.
Needless to say, Warner Bros. really did this film and its stars dirty with the lack of promotion brought on by executives’ greed. Fortunately, the Battalion is taking a stand to prove that audiences do want films that aren’t just about white men, and to show solidarity and compassion for the actors during the SAG-AFTRA strike. Considering the strikes, corporate greed, and underrepresentation riddling Hollywood, we really need more of the Battalion’s energy to help actors and get the movies that people need to see on audiences’ radars.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
