Where Was Blue Beetle Filmed? All Locations Revealed (2024)

WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Blue Beetle.

Blue Beetle's various filming locations blend reality with fiction. Distancing itself from the DCEU's most famous heroes and anti-heroes, Blue Beetle tells a self-contained story focused solely on Xolo Maridueña's Jaime Reyes, his family, and the Kords. Hence, there are no major connections to the wider franchise apart from a few ambiguous references to Batman and Superman, and the whole plot takes place in Jaime Reyes' hometown. Taking El Paso as the basis, Blue Beetle builds a more tropical and futuristic Palmera City with the help of other locations and visual effects.

From Batman's Gotham City and Superman's Metropolis to the Flash's Central City, Wonder Woman's Themyscira, and Aquaman's Atlantis, DC is filled with iconic fictional locations. The DCEU has already explored several of them, including Black Adam's Kahndaq and The Suicide Squad's more obscure Corto Maltese. Although Jaime Reyes is a notable resident of El Paso in DC Comics, Blue Beetle is fully set in Palmera City, a fictional location created specifically for the film. As a result, Blue Beetle had to stitch various real-life locations together to create a believable Palmera City.

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El Paso, Texas 3n6v6e

While Blue Beetle exchanges El Paso for the fictional Palmera City within the story, production did take place in real-life El Paso. Outdoor scenes such as Jaime Reyes' first test with the Blue Beetle suit and Blue Beetle's first battle with Carapax take advantage of El Paso's downtown to stand out from other DC action scenes set in the city and serve as a smooth transition between the state-of-the-art Kord Industries headquarters and the Reyes family's humble house. As a nod to Jaime Reyes' original hometown, the Reyes’ home is located on “El Paso St.".

Beyond the real-life El Paso, Palmera City draws inspiration from Miami's colorful beaches and intricate skyline. And to match Metropolis and Central City's sci-fi aesthetics, Blue Beetle's Palmera City adds gigantic neon signs, billboards, and building decorations that light up the city, giving it a futuristic cyberpunk look, especially at night. Some of Blue Beetle's easter eggs and references are hidden in these neon signs, which include one for Lex Luthor's LexCorp and one for ACE Chemicals — the creators of the substance that changed the Joker and Harley Quinn's appearance.

Castillo San Felipe del Morro in Old San Juan 6b534i

After failing to save the Reyes family's house from Victoria Kord's army, Jenny Kord takes the Reyes family to the original Blue Beetle's headquarters while Victoria takes Jaime Reyes to her own base of operations, located in a far-off fortress. Kord's fortress is actually the Castillo San Felipe del Morro in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Declared a "World Heritage Site" by the United Nations in 1983, the Castillo San Felipe del Morro has stood for over 400 years since its creation under Spanish rule. It was turned into a U.S. army military base around the beginning of the 20th century, and it ultimately became a national park in 1961.

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As is usual with such real-life fortresses, the Castillo San Felipe del Morro does have the tunnel system shown in Blue Beetle. Of course, CGI and scenes shot in a studio might have been necessary for the most VFX-heavy scenes in Blue Beetle's action-packed ending, which featured an underground lab and the Reyes family slicing through waves of Kord's goons aboard the original Blue Beetle's Bug ship. Still, Victoria Kord's fortress looks almost exactly the same in real life as it does in the movie. Beyond the fortress, the scenes that take place at the Reyes family's house were also filmed in Puerto Rico, with real residents playing the Reyes' neighbors.

Decatur, Georgia 5y4ql

Many of Blue Beetle's indoor scenes were shot at Wilder Studios in Decatur, Georgia. Georgia takes the lead in of producing the highest number of feature films in the United States due to its tax incentives and wide array of facilities. Other notable studios in Georgia include Tyler Perry Studios and Turner Studios in Atlanta, as well as Trilith Studios, previously known as Pinewood Atlanta and recognized both for being the largest film facility in Georgia and for being Marvel's go-to production studio.

Los Angeles, California 3b6l6a

Blue Beetle's fictional Palmera City incorporates Los Angeles' emblematic palm trees to do justice to its name, so it's only natural for LA to serve as a filming location. In fact, Los Angeles and all the aforementioned locations were extremely useful not only for authenticity but also for Blue Beetle's visuals. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Blue Beetle director Ángel Manuel Soto explained how shooting on location helped the movie's VFX work, saying "Using real locations allowed us to have better integration of the practical suits, so the VFX serve as an enhancement. It’s a tool, not a dependency." Without a budget as big as The Flash's, it's evident how a practical approach to filming was quite effective for Blue Beetle.