ANGEL MANUEL SOTO

FILMMAKER

Puerto Rican filmmaker Angel Manuel Soto’s pitch to direct “Blue Beetle,” the first DC Extended Universe movie to feature a Latino superhero, was passionate and to the point. Soto wanted to make a comics adaptation that centered on a superhero who championed the people, specifically a Latino population possessing a culture prioritizing family. Soto earned the job, and “Blue Beetle,” which will arrive in theaters in August, has the potential to be a landmark film for Latino representation. It’s a meteoric rise for Soto. His last movie, “Charm City Kings,” a winning drama centered in the Baltimore dirt bike subculture, won a special jury prize for its ensemble at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and then got lost in the first year of the pandemic. That’s not likely to happen with “Blue Beetle” — or Soto, who was also recently tapped to help revive the “Transformers” franchise as a director.

— G.W.