There’s a fierce sociopolitical consciousness coursing through Blue Beetle, something most wouldn’t expect from the new superhero romp by DC Studios. Those revolutionary undertones come directly from the mind of its Puerto Rican director Ángel Manuel Soto.

“Superhero movies often are about the banality of who comes up with the most unrealistic thrill ride,” Soto tells Inverse. “But why do we have to sacrifice emotion and depth for fun? Why can't you have a lot of both?”

Ángel runs hot, his publicist says as he arrives for an interview and photo shoot, both politically and physically. Removing an oversized pinstripe jacket, he reveals a custom T-shirt with a photo of the entire Blue Beetle cast printed on the front, a loving tribute to the striking actors who can’t join him on what should be a victory tour. DC’s latest movie was at one time destined for a quiet streaming release. That it’s now playing in IMAX theaters is thanks to its director’s uncompromising vision.

But Soto’s path to Blue Beetle was more winding than straightforward, and it begins in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan where he grew up.

Andrew Koji is getting too old for this shit.

For three seasons on the acclaimed martial-arts crime drama Warrior, the 35-year-old actor has been getting pummeled, punched, and pulverized every which way. All the while, his character Ah Sahm — a martial artist who travels to San Francisco in search of his sister and gets caught up in the Tong Wars of the late 1870s — has become a local folk hero. The newfound fame earns Ah Sahm a glowing reputation in the frequently-ravaged Chinatown, but it also earns him a target on his back that forces him to fight all manner of axe-wielding gangsters and bigoted cops. Which, in turn, forced Koji to level up his fighting skills.

“The training’s always tough,” Koji tells Inverse in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strikes. “And getting older is always tough because I’m 35 now, and I know it's not old, old, but for that kind of level of action, it's a lot on the body.”

Diving into production for Season 3 after a long Covid-imposed break made the aches and pains even tougher to weather. But Koji and the rest of the cast of Warrior used that break to inform their characters’ headspaces in the third season.