Ben Affleck took to his social media sites this morning to reveal an interesting clip showcasing Deathstroke, one of the villains of Batman and the Teen Titans. Deathstroke, who was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, is a mercenary and has faced off against Batman on several occasions.
There was no text or explanation for the clip. Although, the clip came directly from Affleck, it’s difficult to decipher this cryptic message without context. Announcements such as this one, aren’t normally revealed by a mere clip hitting Facebook and Twitter. So does this mean we will see Deathstroke make an appearance in Justice League or is Affleck just trolling us? Affleck is currently filming Justice League so it’s more likely that we will in fact finally see Slade on the big screen. Another possibility is that as the standalone Batman film is still in development, which Affleck will write, star and direct, this could very well be test footage for that film. Only time will tell but I for one would be very glad to see the mercenary on the big screen. Other previous rumors suggested that Slade may also be the main villain for the second Suicide Squad film.
Another question is “Who is playing the masked villain?” Rumors were recently flying around that Joe Manganiello was up for the role, Zack Snyder sparked speculation further as he recently began following Joe on Twitter. All we can do is speculate for the time being but if this rumor ends up becoming true, I am all for Joe playing the role. We would love to hear your thoughts on Deathstroke appearing in the DCEU. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
**UPDATE: TheWrap has confirmed that Deathstroke will play the main villain in the standalone Batman film.
“Deathstroke will, in fact, be the main antagonist of the Batman standalone movie he’s directing, The Wrap has exclusively learned from an individual with knowledge of the situation.”
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) August 29, 2016