Joe Manganiello is set to reprise the role of Deathstroke in Zack Snyder's Justice League, but back then he was set to be the main villain of The Batman before Ben Affleck left the project. Matt Reeves is now set to release his version of the Dark Knight in 2022, but Manganiello just shared Affleck's original plans for his solo movie.
Talking to Yahoo! Entertainment, Manganiello reveals that Deathstroke was going to be a mastermind slowly dismantling Bruce Wayne's life. He says:
"It was a really dark story in which Deathstroke was like a shark or a horror movie villain that was dismantling Bruce's life from the inside out. It was this systemic thing: He killed everyone close to Bruce and destroyed his life to try and make him suffer because he felt that Bruce was responsible for something that happened to him."
What's interesting is, this was all supposed to be set up in the after-credits scene of Justice League where Deathstroke asks help in taking down the Batman. When Whedon took over the project, the scene was then repurposed so that it would have Luthor and Wilson talking about forming the Legion of Doom instead.
It really was a bummer that the plans for Manganiello's Deathstroke fell through, and after the whole storm that happened behind the scenes of the DCEU, losing Deathstroke was only at the top of a whole lot of mess. It's great that we'll actually get to see a post-apocalyptic Deathstroke in Justice League, and fans have their fingers crossed we'll get more of this DCEU continuity with HBO Max.
Catch Deathstroke in Zack Snyder's Justice League which hits HBO Max sometime in 2021.
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