It’s finally been confirmed, Magic Mike star Joe Manganiello has been cast as Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke in Ben Affleck’s upcoming solo Batman movie.
DC Entertainment president and chief creative officer Geoff Johns revealed Manganiello’s casting during an interview with the Wall Street Journal. He also confirmed the assassin would turn up the Batman film which he and Affleck are co-writing. However he wouldn’t confirm if Deathstroke would turn up in the Justice League movie.
Last month Affleck dropped some epic test footage of Deathstroke aboard the Justice League’s Flying Fox which sent the internet crazy.
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) August 29, 2016
Manganiello has been rumoured for the role of Deathstroke for a while, so just after the footage dropped (and we picked our jaws up off the floor) we here at Omega Underground began the hunt to see Manganiello’s whereabouts and what gigs he had lined up. And our hunch paid off. Turns out he was in London, where the Justice League movie is currently filming. Things just snowballed from there, solidifying that Manganiello was playing the fan favourite villain.
Warner Bros have been interested in bringing Deathstroke to the big screen for a while now. David Goyer (who wrote Man of Steel) was developing a solo Deathstroke film a couple of years ago along with a Team 7 movie which would have featured the character as part of a spec ops team.
Justice League hits screens November 17, 2017 and Ben Affleck’s Batman movie is expected for a 2018 release.
SOURCE: WALL STREET JOURNAL