Blue Beetle post-credits scene explained (spoilers)

Have you watched — or are intending to watch — Blue Beetle? Then be sure to hang around after the film’s finale as there are two post-credits scenes, one of which may be important to future DC projects and another that’s a fun throwback to a plot point.

But before we go into any of that, we’re going to run down what happens at the end of Blue Beetle. That means there will be spoilers – so, here’s your spoiler warning: do not continue reading unless you have seen Blue Beetle!

Read more: The best Blue Beetle Easter eggs

With that out of the way, let’s get into what happens during the Blue Beetle ending.

Does Blue Beetle have any post-credit scenes?

Yes. Blue Beetle has two credit scenes. One in the middle, and one at the very end.

What happens at the end of Blue Beetle?

Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon) spends the majority of Blue Beetle hunting down Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) in the hope of taking back the Scarab that gives Jaime his powers. After capturing Jaime, Kord believes she has won – but she doesn’t plan for the Reyes family saving the day.

Arriving in the Bug Ship that belonged to the former Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, who is Jenny Kord’s (Bruna Marquezine) father, the Reyes family and Jenny storm the castle that Jaime’s being held captive inside. Not only that but Harvey Guillén’s “Dr. Sanchez” (who’s not actually called Dr. Sanchez) finally snaps and turns on Victoria Kord, freeing Jaime.

However, Victoria has her henchman Conrad Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo) — in the comics known as the Indestructible Man — chase down Jaime. They fight, Jaime wins, but he spares Carapax’s life after realising that he’s not really evil but has simply been manipulated by Victoria. Carapax then turns on Victoria and self-destructs with her in his arms.

The Reyes family escapes, but their woes are far from over. Their house has been destroyed and they mourn the death of Damián Alcázar’s Alberto Reyes, Jaime's father.

Read more: What you need to know about Blue Beetle

Thankfully, the community gather around them, bringing food and aid, and then Jenny Kord rocks up wearing a leather jacket and promises to help them. George Lopez’s Uncle Rudy is gifted a new truck, Jaime and Jenny share a kiss, and they blast off into the sky after Jaime suits up once more.

The end! Or is it?

Blue Beetle post-credit scene 1

There are two Blue Beetle post-credits scenes and the first hints at what to expect in any potential sequel.

Throughout Blue Beetle, we’re shown that the Kord family has been searching for the Scarab for many years, yet they were previously never successful in their quest.

However, Ted Kord didn’t wait around to find the Scarab to become a superhero; he was secretly acting as the Blue Beetle, a hero seemingly modelled on the potential powers of the Scarab. He built an underground lair and even a Bug Ship (when Jaime compares Ted to Batman, Uncle Rudy says absolutely not because “Batman was a fascist”).

Jenny believes that her father, Ted Kord, has died, but the post-credits scene, takes place inside Ted’s base. The camera points at the computer that Uncle Rudy used earlier in the movie, the screen turns on, and a male voice says that they were alerted to the fact the computer was used.

The voice reveals itself to be Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle, and he has a message for his daughter: “Tell my daughter, I’m alive. Ted Kord is alive!”

There’s no word on who voices Ted Kord, and there’s no clear image on the screen of Kord, leaving the door potentially open for anyone to be cast in the role, should there be a sequel. And that’s perhaps the bigger question: will there actually be a sequel?

Read more: Every upcoming DC movie

James Gunn and Peter Safran, the new heads of DC Studios, have said that they are restarting the DC cinematic universe. However, whereas Superman and Batman are being recast, Xolo Maridueña will continue playing Jaime Reyes into the future, with Gunn calling him the “first DCU character”.

There has since been some elaboration on the topic, with the film’s director Angel Manuel Soto saying that Blue Beetle could be incorporated into the DCU, and that, should Blue Beetle be a success, he hopes to make a trilogy, the next sequel presumably featuring Ted Kord in a more prominent role.

Blue Beetle post-credit scene 2

Onto the second post-credits scene, which has no impact on the DCU and is more akin to Captain America’s appearance at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Midway through Blue Beetle, Uncle Rudy helps Jaime and Jenny break into Kord headquarters by overrunning the building’s security cameras and playing a cartoon. We briefly see the cartoon on screen, and it appears to be a claymation version of the series El Chapulín Colorado. The end-credits scene is this animation played through.

El Chapulín Colorado, which translates to The Red Grasshopper or The Cherry Cricket, is a famous Mexican TV show that spoofs superheroes by poking fun at how unrealistic they are. It incorporates much Mexican and Latino humour.

However, in our (real) universe, there’s no claymation-style version of El Chapulín Colorado; the original series was live-action, with Ramón Valdés playing the character between 1973 and 1979. A cartoon version aired online in 2015, but the animation style was drawn. It looks like the DCU version of El Chapulín Colorado is a unique creation for the film.

Fun fact, El Chapulín Colorado was the inspiration behind Bumblebee Man in The Simpsons after the show’s creator Matt Groening watched the original series in a motel near the Mexico border.

There’s no word on whether El Chapulín Colorado will return in the DC movies either in live-action or claymation – but who knows what awaits in Gunn’s DC Universe.

Blue Beetle is in cinemas and IMAX now. Watch a trailer below.