JUSTICE LEAGUE Director Zack Snyder Shares New Look at Joe Manganiello as ‘Perfect Deathstroke’
Zack Snyder recently created a buzz on the internet when he shared a never-before-seen photo of Henry Cavill’s Supermanand the filmmaker has now posted a new photo of Joe Manganiello as Slade Wilson, aka DeathStroke.
“I shot it with my monochrome Leica and my 50mm dream lens modified by @zerooptik, thank you @joemanganiello for being a perfect DeathStroke”, Snyder captioned his post.
THE Real blood the former student only got to dress like Slade Wilson for a brief Justice League Post-credits Stinger (he also appeared in Snyder’s director’s cut), and while he was set to return as the main villain in Ben Affleck’s Batman film, everything changed when the actor/director decided to part ways with the project and Matt Reeves was brought in to deliver his own version of The Dark Knight.
During a 2020 interview with YahooManganiello shared some new details about Affleck’s now-defunct screenplay, drawing comparisons to David Fincher’s 1997 thriller, The game.
“It was a really dark story where DeathStroke was like a shark or a horror movie villain that was dismantling Bruce’s life from the inside out. It was this systemic thing: he killed everyone who was close to Bruce and destroyed his life to try to make him suffer because he felt Bruce was responsible for something that happened to him.”
There was speculation that Manganiello could be set to return to this role shortly after it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran were taking over as co-CEOs of DC Studios, but that really doesn’t seem likely at this point. However, there are plans to introduce a new version of Wilson in the DCU, with Captain America: Brave New World writer Matthew Orton enlisted to write the script for a DeathStroke and Bane film last year.
Although Snyder’s posting of these photos sparked speculation among the #RestoreTheSnyderVerse faithful, we doubt there’s much going on beyond the filmmaker sharing his work on his new Instagram account.
Gunn and Snyder have been in contact since the DCEU reboot was announced when the DCU was announced, but the chances of the latter returning to the fold seem pretty slim. Still, the fact that Gunn and DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran will continue to develop Elseworlds projects means we can’t rule anything out completely.
“You know, I’m a pretty open book. I definitely feel like, you know, if the characters are treated respectfully and mythologically correct, then I’m depressed. I’m in on it,” Snyder said when asked about the DCU revival last year. “Let’s see what happens. I’m pretty excited. I mean, we’re going to have Superman real soon, so we’ll see what that looks like.”
When asked on Threads if he saw Snyder’s comments about his “enthusiasm for the DCU,” Gunn responded: “I didn’t, but I already knew because he texted me. He’s been incredibly supportive throughout this whole process.”
