At one point, former “True Blood” star Joe Manganiello was very close to making multiple film appearances as famed DC Comics villain Deathstroke.
Then, circumstances changed and it all apart – ultimately the actor only ended up playing the character in a brief “Justice League” post-credits scene.
According to a new interview with the Happy. Sad. Confused. podcast, Manganiello says his future in the DCEU hit problems a few months after he shot his “Justice League” part when he learned Ben Affleck’s version of “The Batman” solo film was kaput.
That film was going to see Manganiello’s character serve as the main villain. When that fell through, a solo film from “The Raid” director Gareth Evans was lined-up, but then that didn’t get the green light: “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.”
Next was the hope he would reprise his role in David Ayer’s “Suicide Squad” sequel, but that version of the project was collapsed and James Gunn came in and completely overhauled the franchise. Even so, that was a serious possibility: “There were four or five different versions of ‘Suicide Squad 2’ that I was put on hold for, for dates, waiting for one actor to free up and we were going to go.”
A re-edited version of his “Justice League” scene is expected to appear in next week’s launch of Zack Snyder’s recut of the film.