The release ofZack Snyder’s Justice Leaguehas renewed interest in Joe Manganiello’sDeathstroke, who was originally primed to star in his own movie as well as be the main villain for a Ben Affleck Batman movie. Now, filmmaker Gareth Evans is sharing his experience in trying to make the Deathstroke movie, which never went into development.
Gareth Evans is a Welsh director and screenwriter known for filmsMerantau,The Raid, andApostle, as well as the TV seriesGangs of London. Speaking to CINEMAHEADS about what happened with the Deathstroke film, Evans says he didn’t know much about the character when he was approached about it, but did a deep dive and came up with a cool concept. He says his concept was “a sort of like really lean, like you know, nothing more than 100 minutes origin story that would feel really kind of like within the vein of the Korean noir films that I was watching at the time and am really into.”
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Evans says that DC and Joe Manganiello liked the concept, but thatthings changed afterJustice Leaguewas releasedin 2017; “I think there was a change of personnel, and then suddenlyDeathstrokestopped being the priority project for them. And so I think they were trying to reconfigure things and then see if they could go in a different direction with some of the projects or whatever, or tonally shift things.” DC never followed up with Evans after the project “fell by the wayside,” and that’s where things remain. As of now, it appears the last audiences will see of Manganiello’s Deathstroke will be in the post-credits scene ofJustice League, in which Lex Luthor proposes forming a team of supervillains with the assassin in the theatrical version while revealing the true identity of Batman in the Snyder Cut, setting up the events of Affleck’s canceledBatmanfilm.
Joe Manganiello also recently spoke aboutwhat happened withDeathstroke, saying, “When the dust settled, it was not seen as a priority to make a $40 million movie about a villain origin story in which you show the backstory.” With the Ben Affleck Batman movie shelved in favor ofThe Batmanwith new star Robert Pattinson, Deathstroke as a character and as a project appear to have been canceled. Fans, however, have suggested thatDeathstroke get his own HBO Max TV series, with Manganiello’s support.
Since the release of the Snyder cut, fans have been campaigning to #RestoreTheSnyderVerse, wanting the nextJustice Leagueinstallment, which would have also featured Deathstroke. The campaign reached over one million tweets within a week ofZack Snyder’s Justice Leaguebeing released on HBO Max. Warner Bros. has repeatedly shut down the campaign, insisting that they are looking forward and this will beSnyder’s last DCEU projectfor now, but fans remain persistent.
While realistically, it looks increasingly unlikely that the Snyderverse will ever come to fruition, some fans hope that projects likeDeathstrokecould be retooled to fit into the new DC continuity. What will happen remains to be seen, but betweenThe Suicide Squad,The Batman,The Flash, andBlack Adam, there aremany exciting DC projectsin the works.
