I’m not sure who didn’t get the memo at this point, but HBO Max Latin America ordered an original DC Animated film called Batman Azteca: Choque de Imperios (Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires). This collaboration between Warner Bros. Animation, DC, Anima, and Chatrone is likely one of many. Last month, HBO Max Latin America told Variety they were looking to release 50-70 Latin America-branch originals. Deadline reported the news at the Guadalajara International Film Festival, and the official synopsis says,
In the time of the Aztec Empire, Yohualli Coatl — a young Aztec boy — experiences tragedy when his father and village leader, Toltecatzin, is murdered by Spanish Conquistadors. Yohualli escapes to Tenochtitlan to warn King Moctezuma and his high priest, Yoka, of imminent danger. Using the temple of Tzinacan, the bat god, as a lair, Yohualli trains with his mentor and assistant, Acatzin, developing equipment and weaponry to confront the Spaniard invasion, protect Moctezuma’s temple, and avenge his father’s death.
Experience storyboard artist and director (Harley Quinn: The Animated Series) José C. García de Letona will serve as the director with Batman Azteca, produced entirely in Mexico. According to Deadline, this is to bring in local talent in all aspects of production. They’re bringing on Alejandro Díaz Barriga (a specialist in Mesoamerican studies) to help make sure the Indigenous representation is handled appropriately. Barriga also specializes in the ethnic history of Mexico and the Andean region (across the west side of South America).
Give us more of this
Empires are bad, and the Aztecs are no different. However, technology and culture-wise, the Aztecs, alongside the Persians and Roman, have so many well-documented aspects that I can’t keep still—I’m that excited. Honestly, I’m already anticipating the bad takes of “that’s not realistic,” even though 1) it’s a Batman movie and 2) it might be because the Aztecs’ civil engineering was top tier. On a positive note, I’m also excited to see lectures and video essays from people specializing in history, and art pointing out things I missed.
Unlike Batman: Ninja (which I had mixed feelings about), I hope that they stick with the same cast/voice acting regardless of region and just use subtitles. I’m not sure how viable it is to have a majority of the cast speaking Nahuatl (the main language), with the exception the Spaniards. The numbers are all over the place, but an estimated 1.5 million people speak a version of it today. I say a “version” because I’m technically speaking in writing in the same language as 1500s England, but also, I’m clearly not. By the title alone, though, it will likely be in Spanish.
Three-dimensional Latinx characters and history are so sparsely represented in major films that I was genuinely surprised (before being devastated) when we got to see this time period recently depicted for a few very meaningful moments in the Eternals. While Marvel is struggling to give us even a non-McGuffin Latinx character (let alone the Afro-Latinx erasure), DC is out here with two film projects with Latino leads. A movie starring Xolo Maridueña as the 2000s-forward Blue Beetle (a.k.a. Mexican-American teenager Jaime Reyes) will be in theaters in August 2023. Now, there’s pre-Spanish (and, in this case, pre-Mexico) Yohualli Coatl coming soon now, too!
(via Deadline, image: HBO Max)
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