It would be entirely fitting for Warner Bros. and DC Films to introduce a new version of Deathstroke at the expense of Joe Manganiello, with the actor already holding the unwanted reputation of being the single unluckiest person to get involved in the shared superhero universe.
Having debuted in the post-credits scene of Joss Whedon’s Justice League, Manganiello was supposed to be a major force in the DCEU. As well has heading up a villainous team of his own, the star’s Slade Wilson was set to act as the big bad of Ben Affleck’s The Batman, and headline a solo movie directed by The Raid‘s Gareth Evans, while he was also included in early drafts of the script for what eventually became James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, as well as being positioned as a key player in the Knightmare timeline during the epilogue of Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
What the future holds for him now remains to be seen, but a recent rumor says that an all-new Slade Wilson will be introduced as part of Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe, with the Riddler flooding Gotham City at the end of the movie, causing a cataclysmic event based on the Year Zero comic book that will eventually lead to the introductions of Mr. Freeze and Deathstroke version 2.0.
Of course, none of this has been confirmed or corroborated as of yet, so it’s entirely speculative at this stage, and we’ve already heard plenty of talk that The Batman will involve at least six villains. In any case, the studio and production crew are keeping their cards very close to the chest over plot specifics for now, and it’ll likely stay that way until at least the debut of the next trailer, if not the March 2022 release date.
