Joe Manganiello is officially done with the role of Deathstroke as the actor confirms he is no longer attached to the character.
In an interview with Coming Soon from earlier in November, Joe Manganiello is asked if he is optimistic if he will play Deathstroke again, but Manganiello responds that he let it go a while ago:
CS: You got to reprise the role of Deathstroke for the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Are you still optimistic that you’ll get to portray him more in-depth down the line?
JM: No, I let that go a while ago.
Joe Manganiello was Zack Snyder’s choice to play Deathstroke, and Manganiello was also supposed to star as the villain in the Ben Affleck The Batman movie, but it’s not happening anymore, as director Matt Reeves took over The Batman with Robert Pattinson.
Joe Manganiello Deathstroke details for Ben Affleck’s The Batman
Manganiello did previously reveal Deathstroke details about The Batman:
Some of the regular Batman characters that show up in the films were not going to make it through. It would have been a cleaning house in a lot of ways.
It involved Adeline [Kane], the kids, who were going to be young, Wintergreen, Talia [al Ghul]. In my script, there was an origin story for the sword and there were League of Shadows ties and things like that.
It was more of a Tom Clancy ripped from the headlines sort of story, or even like a Bourne Identity where it was going to be really grounded, and political with military drama as far as what it would take to go from devoting his life to his country for this life he believed in to, you know, having the rug pulled out from underneath him and being stabbed in the back and not knowing who to trust.
The story also involved the death of Slade Wilson’s son:
The way it was written at the time I read the script was that Batman was blamed by Slade for the death of his son. Slade’s son gets killed. There were some events that led back to Bruce, led back to Batman. That he had a hand in it, that he was partially responsible for it. Slade blamed him.
Word was on the street that Slade wanted to kill Batman. That’s why he was summoned to Lex Luthor’s yacht and given a key piece of information to help with that as well. So that Slade could potentially get rid of Batman.
I think it’d be such a fun series and people would absolutely love it and there’s not a lot like it out there right now. It would have its own tone and its own place within the universe. I think it would be very fun and tonally very unique.
Manganiello also revealed that Batman would have needed the help of Batgirl, as Batman was “completely afraid” of Deathstroke:
There was like a big huge showdown, I think between Batgirl…Batgirl jumps in to try and help Bruce because Deathstroke is so fast. He can anticipate Bruce’s movements.
Manganiello went on to explain that Batman is “completely afraid” of Slade Wilson because “he met someone who can take him.
That leads to this big climactic battle through the streets of Gotham in the end. It’s like a real-life psychological thriller with Deathstroke. He was like a horror movie, like a shark, kind of like Jaws.
Zack Snyder also revealed his Justice League sequel ideas would have seen the Ben Affleck Batman killed off with the non-powered son of Lois and Clark becoming the new Batman.
Rumors now offer Deathstroke is getting recast for an HBO Max series.
