Blue Beetle's 'Fascist Batman' Backlash Doesn't Bother The Star: 'That Was The Point'

"Blue Beetle" star Xolo Maridueña has responded to the surprising backlash caused by a one-liner in the first trailer for his upcoming DC Comics film — and, spoiler alert, he's totally fine if it made you mad.

Toward the end of the trailer, which was released in April of this year, the character Rudy (the eccentric uncle of Maridueña's Jaime Reyes, and played by comedian George Lopez) balks at a comparison to Batman and calls the globally recognized DC icon "a fascist." The joke made many online feel upset and defensive, apparently under the assumption that it served as a formal rebuke of the Dark Knight on behalf of "Blue Beetle's" creative team. Suffice it to say, for such a small moment it's caused a great deal of discomfort.

For Maridueña, that was the idea. "Maybe Jaime and the audience don't agree with Rudy, but you're allowed to have your opinion," the 22-year-old actor told MovieMaker Magazine recently. "That's okay. If you felt some type of way about it, that was the point." Though the "Cobra Kai" breakout star didn't state his own feelings on the character definitively, they seem to be immaterial to the joke's presence in the film. "I think if you agree with it, if you don't agree with it, it was placed there for a reason," he said. "And you know, all of the people who have their Batman shrines at home can keep them there and they don't have to worry." This sentiment was shared, in part, and possibly elaborated on by director Angel Manuel Soto in the same publication.

Speaking on the moment himself, Angel Manuel Soto said the Batman line is meant to reveal more about Uncle Rudy than Bruce Wayne (or the screenwriters, for that matter). "We always wanted to have fun with the way Rudy talks about other superheroes," Soto told MovieMaker. "So to the people who got mad at it, give us a chance. We're just trying to have fun with the characters that we love. And everybody in our movie loves Batman and Superman and Flash."

Despite causing much debate online, Soto's use of in-universe name-drops is nothing new for the post-Zack Snyder interregnum at DC Films. James Gunn used the same bit as a recurring joke throughout the first season of HBO's "Peacemaker" series. The titular character (played by John Cena) adamantly insists on a number of absurd conspiracies about A-List DC superheroes, including Green Arrow (who is, according to Peacemaker, a "Brony") and Aquaman (who's somewhat predictably accused of having sex with fish). Gunn's fellow co-CEO, Peter Safran, and his production company, The Safran Company, were involved in both "Peacemaker" and "Blue Beetle."

It seems probable that Rudy, like Peacemaker, is meant to be seen as a conspiracy theorist himself, reacting to a world growing stranger with each alien invasion and timeline reset. Whether or not his theories shake your confidence in the characters will be up to you to decide. Soto, on the other hand, is confident in his opinions. "Of course, we have criticisms about all [the DC superheroes], as we all should. But that doesn't mean that we hate Batman. We love Batman."