Joe Manganiello assures fans that Deathstroke’s return is in the works

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Joe Manganiello was cast as Deathstroke close to two years ago and it was intended for the character to make an appearance in JUSTICE LEAGUE before taking on a larger role in Ben Affleck's standalone Batman movie. However, Deathstroke only wound up appearing in a short post-credit sequence in JUSTICE LEAGUE, and when Ben Affleck stepped away from writing and directing THE BATMAN and was replaced by Matt Reeves (WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES), Manganiello's future looked up in the air. While it feels like poor Joe Manganiello is a casualty of Warner Bros.' reshuffling of their DC Universe, the actor told MTV's Josh Horowitz during San Diego Comic-Con that he's still involved with the franchise.

I say, ‘It’s in the works,’ because it is and there’s nothing further that I can say without speaking out of school, because I’m part of a team, I’m a part of a locker room — you don’t talk outside the locker room. But all I can say is, for the hardcore fans, it’s in the works. They want the character to happen, it’s just when he happens.

Joe Manganiello added that both Warner Bros. and himself just want to get the character right. "I think everybody is committed to that," he said. Although we haven't heard much on the topic for close to a year, it was rumoured that Gareth Evans (THE RAID) was in early discussions to write and direct a Deathstroke spin-off. Of course, this was before JUSTICE LEAGUE was released and became a critical and commercial disappointment for the studio. It remains to be seen just how Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke will make his grand re-entrance in the DC Universe, or even if it will happen, but Manganiello does seem to know more than he's letting on.

What do you folks think? Would you like to see Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke back in the DC Universe or has that ship sailed?