Joe Manganiello Returns For More ‘Justice League’
by Erik Amaya
It seems our joke the other day about the Legion of Doom may have some truth to it.
Collider reports actor Joe Manganiello is the latest member of the Justice League cast to return for director Zack Snyder‘s four hour version of the film. In the theatrical version, the actor briefly appeared as Deathstroke in the post-credit stinger scene. Making his way to a yacht occupied by Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), the two appear to plot about a league of their own.
At the time of filming, Manganiello was set to reprise his role in Ben Affleck‘s version of The Batman. But when Matt Reeves took over the project, the notion of Batman v Deathstroke fell by the wayside. A Deathstroke film was also in development with director Gareth Evans, but this also fell apart. As it happens, Manganiello has a habit of almost playing DC Comics characters; he was also in the running for Superman before Brandon Routh won the part in Superman Returns.
If the report turns out to be correct, Manganiello joins Affleck, Ray Fisher, Amber Heard, and Jared Leto as actors taking part in an expensive reshoot to complete Justice League as Snyder intended. The inclusion of Leto, whose Joker was not part of the original production, led us to joke the post-credit scene might more directly imply a Legion of Doom with the three characters enjoying champagne by the Italian seaside. Now, we feel this notion is more likely.
But to what end? Could Snyder and HBO Max have a Legion of Doom limited series in mind? Zack Snyder’s Justice League, meanwhile, comes to the service sometime next year.