Cast your minds back to summer 2016. The internet exploded with glee when Ben Affleck shared a video from the set of Justice League on Twitter that depicted Deathstroke. As well as teaming up DC’s biggest superheroes, the film was also clearly set to feature some sort of role for the iconic supervillain. Fast forward to autumn 2017, however, and that specific scene that Affleck shared was nowhere to be found in the theatrical cut of the movie.
Of course, this was far from the only scene that was initially part of the film but was removed during the extensive reshoots, once original director Zack Snyder was replaced with Joss Whedon. But what was the story behind this Deathstroke video? Did Slade Wilson initially have a much bigger part in Justice League? Well, the truth has now come out thanks to Snyder, confirming that it was indeed test footage.
Here’s a screenshot of his reply to a fan on Vero:
So, it seems that Deathstroke was always intended to play the role he did in the final version of Justice League. To jog your memory, Joe Manganiello made his debut as the assassin known as the Terminator in the film’s post-credits scene. It saw him summoned by Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor to help him form a league of supervillains to combat the assembled heroes. From what we’ve heard, this won’t be the last time we see the DCEU’s Legion of Doom, either.
Hopefully it’ll be just the beginning of a long history for Deathstroke in the franchise, too. Initially, Manganiello was cast with an eye on him being the main villain in The Batman, but this doesn’t look to be the case now that Matt Reeves is in charge. The actor did recently confirm though that the character’s solo movie is still being discussed over at Warner Bros. According to the last major update we had, The Raid‘s Gareth Evans was attached to direct.
In the meantime, if you’d like to relive Deathstroke’s DCEU debut, you can do so via the Justice League Blu-ray (order here).
