From Warner Bros and director Ben Affleck comes the as of yet untitled new Batman movie, which is co-written by Affleck and DC Entertainment President/COO Geoff Johns. The film will star Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Joe Manganiello as the villain Deathstroke. The movie will hit theaters likely sometime in 2018.
Geoff Johns confirmed today with the Wall Street Journal that Magic Mike and True Blood star Joe Manganiello will go toe to toe with Ben Affleck in the upcoming Batman flick. Manganiello was rumored earlier to have snagged the part, but we can now rest assured that he will be portraying Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke aka one of the DCU’s coolest badguys/anti-heroes. Hell – Marvel’s Deadpool was created in response to this guy (Wade Wilson anyone? Similar suits? Similar everything anyone?).
The character was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez in 1980, making his debut in the New Teen Titans DC Comics series. Deathstroke made his live-action debut on the CW’s Arrow where he was played by Spartacus star Manu Bennett. As everyone knows by now – the DC movie-verse stands alone from the DC TV-verse, so that doesn’t matter whatsoever. Earlier this year Affleck blew fans’ minds when he released the below test footage of someone in a Deathstroke suit while he was in London filming the Justice League flick. Although no explanation has been given, this scene could likely be a teaser for things to come in the stand-alone Batman flick or maybe Deathstroke is indeed a part of the Justice League movie as well in some capacity.
In my opinion Manganiello playing Slade Wilson is a great casting choice and I’m excited to see him go toe to toe with Batfleck, in what will likely be a more gritty and grounded Batman movie considering Wilson like Wayne, relies on his fighting tactics and has no superpower. The two don’t have much comic history together, but remember their sweet-ass fight in the Arkham Origins videogame? That alone is enough to justify a live-action brawl between the Dark Knight and The Terminator. Yeah – he’s called Deathstroke The Terminator sometimes. Manganiello has yet to have landed a major role like this one so I’m happy we’ll get to see him eat up the most screen-time of his career playing the DCU’s most dangerous hitman.
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) August 29, 2016