Blue Beetle's Best Easter Egg Is A Tip Of The Hat To Guillermo Del Toro

No matter your current opinion of superhero movies in general, you've got to hand it to "Blue Beetle" director Ángel Manuel Soto — he sure does have great taste in Easter eggs.

While all modern comic book movies are chock-full of references to deeper lore and obscure characters ("Blue Beetle" is no exception in this department), Soto cuts a little deeper. In a film about a young Mexican-American man who becomes a superhero with the backup of his Mexican family, the director cheekily inserts a sly reference to a lesser-known film from one of the greatest living Mexican filmmakers. And it's the only film he actually made entirely in Mexico, no less.

The director is Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro and the film is "Cronos," the filmmaker's 1992 feature debut. And while this could easily be seen as another nod to Mexican culture in a movie full of similar nods, this one cuts a little deeper. Because "Cronos" has more in common with "Blue Beetle" than you'd expect, making this an Easter egg that works on several levels.

Before he won Oscars for directing "The Shape of Water" and "Pinocchio," before he helmed three of the most underrated comic book movies ever, before he crafted modern genre masterpieces like "Pan's Labyrinth," "Crimson Peak," and "Pacific Rim," Guillermo del Toro made "Cronos." Shot on a small budget, it's the kind of debut that indicates its maker is going to be a Big Freakin' Deal one day. Everything that makes a del Toro film a del Toro film is evident here, even if the scale is smaller than his later efforts.

And its inclusion in "Blue Beetle" is a real "blink and you'll miss it" moment. During one scene, Nana Reyes (Adriana Barraza) is flipping through channels, and for a few precious seconds, we lay eyes on footage from "Cronos." Is this Soto, himself Puerto Rican, paying homage to another filmmaker of Latin/Hispanic heritage who broke into Hollywood on a major scale? Surely. Of course. But if you've seen "Cronos," you know that this appreciative nod in del Toro's direction is a bit cheekier than that.

Like so much of del Toro's work, "Cronos" is a movie about monsters, and our sympathy for them. Specifically, the monster is Jesús (Federico Luppi), who comes into possession of a strange, scarab-shaped object that attaches itself to his body and gives him supernatural abilities, including renewed youth and vigor. As long as he consumes blood on a regular basis. "Cronos" is a vampire movie, albeit one that approaches the subject from a unique angle, with the bloodsucker in thrall to an artifact rather than a condition.

So what does that have to do with "Blue Beetle," a movie about a young man named Jamie (Xolo Maridueña) who comes into possession of a strange, scarab-shaped object that attaches itself to his body and gives him supernatural abilities, including strength and flight? Oh. Right. Sure, Jamie doesn't need to drink blood or harm the innocent during his adventure, but the elements of body horror are there: a beetle-shaped thing has claimed his body, and how he chooses to use these powers defines his ultimate fate. In "Cronos," the trajectory is brutal and tragic. In "Blue Beetle," it's ... Well, it's a superhero movie! You know the drill.

So there you have it. The best Easter egg in "Blue Beetle" isn't tied to the larger DC Universe, but one that tips its hat to a Mexican filmmaker whose fingerprints are all over modern cinema, and his earliest, smallest film, which shares an unlikely amount of crossover with this big-budget superhero adventure. You've got to hand it to Soto. This is one hell of a great cut.