There was a rumor in place that Joe Manganiello would be playing Deathstroke, but it has now been confirmed by DC Entertainment’s president and chief creative officer.
Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Geoff Johns confirmed that Manganiello would be playing the DC Comics villain, and will be facing off against Ben Affleck’s Caped Crusader in The Batman.
This comes hot on the heels of Affleck sharing video of a heavily armored Deathstroke on his Twitter last week.
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) August 29, 2016
Deathstroke the Terminator was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez in the pages of The New Teen Titans. He is Slade Wilson, a mercenary who due to an experimental serum has unlock the ability to use 90% of his brain, making him a brilliant tactician and planner. The serum also gave Wilson super strength, agility and speed. In addition, he has been trained in all forms of combat and weaponry.
Fun fact: Deadpool got his start as a bastardized version of this character. Rob Liefeld reworked an old Teen Titans pitch into the one that got him the job at Marvel co-writing The New Mutants. Slade “Deathstroke” Wilson became Wade “Deadpool” Wilson, and the rest is history.
The character is a popular one with the television side of DC. Antonio Sabato, Jr played a loose version of the character on Lois and Clark. Michael Hogan played a version of him on Smallville and Manu Bennett’s version of the character was an integral part of Arrow.
Manganiello is no stranger to comic book films, having played Flash Thompson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. Others might remember him from his work in Magic Mike and True Blood.
This has caused fans to speculate that Deathstroke would be in the upcoming Justice League. I think that its also safe to ask if pre-production on The Batman has begun and how close to shooting that film is. No date for the film has been set, but it looks like it is definitely coming in 2018. Also, will his Deathstroke be the main villain, or will be a gun for hire working for another bad guy. We shall see.
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