DEATHSTROKE/BANE Rumor Reveals Whether Joe Manganiello Will Return As Slade Wilson For DCU Team-Up

There was a time when Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke was being lined up for a huge role in the DCEU. Original plans called for the villain to learn Batman’s secret identity in Justice League‘s post-credits scene (courtesy of Lex Luthor), setting the stage for him to hunt down Bruce Wayne in the pre-Robert Pattinson version of The Batman. 

That all changed when Ben Affleck decided not to direct the movie, leading to Joss Whedon’s Justice League showing Slade Wilson being enlisted to the “Injustice Society” instead. Despite the change, there were later rumblings about a Deathstroke spin-off helmed by The Raid‘s Gareth Evans.

In September, the trades reported that DC Studios had tapped Captain America: Brave New World writer Matthew Orton to pen a Deathstroke/Bane team-up movie. Many have wondered whether it’s really a Secret Six project and James Gunn has confirmed on multiple occasions that he has plans for DC’s Terminator. 

It’s been a while since we’ve had an update on this movie but, according to scooper @MyTimeToShineH, “Joe Manganiello is 100% not coming back as Deathstroke. For the Deathstroke/Bane movie they are looking to cast a new actor for the role.”

The hope was that Manganiello might get a second chance; like Channing Tatum as Gambit, he never got a chance to properly play a character he loves. However, his ties to the DCEU are likely too much for DC Studios to ignore. 

As well as being forever linked to Justice League‘s baffling – reshot – post-credits scene, the Spider-Man star suited up as Deathstroke for a handful of Knightmare sequences in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. 

While Manganiello has shared his interest in reprising the role in the new DCU several times, it was back in February that he suggested his time as the character was definitely at an end. 

“James [Gunn] is my buddy, and James and I had a conversation about it because Jim Lee over at DC Comics wanted me to create a graphic novel series based on the screenplay that I wrote for the Deathstroke origin film,” he explained.

“When they were dismantling the DCEU, that went to the wayside as well,” Manganiello continued. “Jim read it, and wanted it to be a graphic novel series, but no one could assure me that, if it garnered the attention of directors and producers, that I couldn’t be attached. So I had to let it go. James Gunn was just like, ‘Let it go.’”

Who do you think should play the DCU’s Deathstroke?