After seeing a breathtaking performance from Ben Affleck in Batman Vs Superman, Joe Manganiello must have been excited to play the antagonist in Ben’s Batman movie. He was teased by Zack Snyder in his Justice League which was then supposed to lead into a full-fledged Batman vs Deathstroke project, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be.
Manganiello has given up all hope for Deathstroke
While Hollywood does occasionally give second chances as we had recently seen with Zack Snyder getting a chance to finish his four-hour cut for his version of Justice League, Joe Manganiello is not so optimistic. In a recent interview, he has revealed that he has given up all hope to get to play Deathstroke again. When asked whether he is still ‘optimistic’ about an in-depth portrayal of Deathstroke down the line, the actor said,
No, I let that go a while ago.
The initial DCEU had a lot of unrealized potential, and one of it was Manganiello’s Deathstroke, which he didn’t even get to play except a few cameo appearances. He had made his own version of an origin story for the character back when Ben Affleck’s Batman movie was in development and convinced director Gareth Evans to sign on for the project. He pitched this as a 40–50-million-dollar project which will serve as a backstory for the villain and whose runtime will be close to two hours. But when the WB Executives changed in 2017, the new bosses didn’t think that a villain origin story movie was a priority, so they cancelled the project.
Slade Wilson was the main villain in Ben Affleck’s Batman movie
A plot very famous from the Arkham Knight games, Ben Affleck’s movie was supposed to be a battle of wits and strength against Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke. The movie would be about Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, taking revenge on Batman after he learns that an event caused by the Dark Knight escalates to the point of Wilson’s son getting killed in the process. He becomes Deathstroke and takes an oath to seek revenge for his son.
In the original pitch for The Batman, Deathstroke performed a demolition job on Bruce Wayne’s life, systematically destroying his public status as Gotham City’s leading citizen and his private existence as its Caped Crusader. Joe Manganiello says, “It was a really dark story in which Deathstroke was like a shark or a horror movie villain that was dismantling Bruce’s life from the inside out.” Deathstroke kills everyone close to Bruce and destroys his life to try and make him suffer. Because he felt that Bruce was responsible for his suffering.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League set up Deathstroke to take on The Batman
Further, the epilogue of Zack Snyder’s Justice League shows that Lex Luthor gave Deathstroke crucial information about Batman, revealing his real identity. This was supposed to be the starting of Ben Affleck’s Batman showing the past of Slade Wilson and his motives. This movie would also explore the death of Dick Grayson (Robin), after which Batman had turned into an unhinged version of himself in Batman Vs Superman.
With the campaign for Restore The Snyderverse still going strong, it might still be possible for Joe Manganiello to return as Deathstroke.
