Joe Manganiello Mum On Deathstroke Details
by Erik Amaya
While discussing his Dungeons & Dragons hobby with The Hollywood Reporter, actor Joe Manganiello offered a non-comittal answer to his status as the feature film version of Deathstroke.
Asked point blank if he had any information on the topic, the actor said, “I do but nothing that I can share. I know everything but I can’t say any of it.”
Last year, Ben Affleck — when he was still director of The Batman — began teasing Manganiello’s role as Slade Wilson in the so-called DC Extended Universe. He even offered a bit footage from a costume test on the set of Justice League.
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) August 29, 2016
But then Affleck’s involvement with The Batman came into question, eventually leading to him walking away from the project as director. War of the Planet of the Apes‘s Matt Reeves signed on to replace him and recently announced he is starting from scratch on the film’s story.
But will it mean there’s still room for Deathstroke?
As it happens, I think the character is an inspired choice for an antagonist. He is a brilliant tactician and a worthy physical opponent for the Bat of Gotham. Come to think of it, I wish his appearances in the Arkham game series had been more physical to play up how evenly matched they are. Hopefully, Reeves will see Slade as a fresh and interesting opponent for Batman and keep Manganiello aboard the project.
For Manganiello, coming close the DC stars is nothing new. He was nearly the Man of Steel contractual obligationsSuperman, but held him back. And one assumes he’ll still get a nice chunk of change for nearly being Deathstroke should Reeves decide to go in a different direction.
Meanwhile, I should point out that THR only asked Manganiello about this because he and Daredevil‘s Deborah Ann Woll are Twitch-streaming a D&D campaign called Force Grey: Lost City of Omu with Brian Posehn, Dylan Sprouse and Critical Role‘s Matt Mercer. His character is “a dragonborn oathbreaker paladin who worships the five-headed dragon goddess Tiamat.” Which, honestly, sounds cooler than Deathstroke. If the whole DCEU thing doesn’t work out for him, maybe someone should consider building a fantasy flick around him.
