The theatrical cut of Justice League ended with a tantalizing teaser. A mysterious armored figure approached Jesse Eisenberg’s newly freed Lex Luthor to offer his services. This was the DC universe’s most talented assassin and master martial artist Deathstroke, with Joe Manganiello looking like he’d stepped right off the pages of the comic books. Luthor offered proof of Batman’s secret identity and the pair celebrated, hinting at a future DCEU movie in which Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight squared off against the hired killer.
The colossal failure of Joss Whedon’s Justice League meant that movie never happened, though Zack Snyder eventually brought Manganiello back for the post-apocalyptic Knightmare coda at the end of HBO Max’s four-hour version. With James Gunn now pushing the DCU in a new direction and apparently determined to leave the SnyderVerse in the past, will we ever actually see Mangianello’s Deathstroke in action?
Gunn at least is entertaining the possibility:
Fans are still very much burning a candle for Manganiello to reprise the role:
Replies agree, concluding that this represents a huge missed opportunity for the DCU:
Others are hoping he’ll be the antagonist of a Teen Titans movie (though this would be a long way away):
This classic Teen Titans story would take a while to set up, but we’d love to see it on screen:
But others think it’s time to recast:
Would the best course of action be to simply recast everyone and start from scratch?
Let’s face it, if he did fight Batman it would be a rare instance of someone able to match his fighting skills:
Manganiello returning is definitely an outside bet at this point, but it’d be nice for that Justice League teaser to get some resolution. With Jesse Eisenberg’s time as Luthor now over, Affleck’s tenure as Batman apparently coming to an end, and the DCU looking decidedly different going forwards, we may just have to imagine Deathstroke’s battles with DC’s heroes rather than see them on screen.
