When I learned that DC Studios – formerly DC Films – was going to release a Blue Beetle movie (not based on the Ted Kord version of the character, the only one I’m familiar with) I assumed that the movie was DOA.

And I still do, except for a bit of uncertainty I like to call ‘The Barbie Effect.’

I’ve known that there was a movie based on the toy for about a year or so but Mattel couldn’t get a Masters of the Universe movie off the ground – Netflix recently gave up on the project – so why would anyone expect any better of Barbie?

Barbie!

Her elbows and knees don’t even move (to be fair the Masters of the Universe figures don’t have articulated knees or elbows either, but they do have muscles)!

No one is going to pay to see a movie based on Barbie, unless they do, it should go without saying.

So while I still think Blue Beetle isn’t going to do well, because it feels to me that people have overall lost faith in what Warner Bros Discovery is selling as far as their DC characters are concerned, let’s just say I’m not as positive as I was a few weeks ago.