This last week’s there were two Deathstrokes on screen with Manu Bennett appearing as Slade Wilson on Arrow and Joe Maganiello bringing the character to life on the big screen in Justice League and while many fans would have preferred Bennett be the big-screen Deathstroke, too, Bennett had nothing but positive things to say about Manganiello’s big-screen take on the character.
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At Heroes & Villains Fanfest in Atlanta this weekend, Bennett praised Manganiello as being a “fantastic” guy and for all the hard work he had put in to become the character.
“Joe Manganiello is gonna bring, well he’s already brought, Deathstroke to the screen in the new Justice League so…” Bennett said. “You know, Joe’s a really fantastic, fantastic wonderful guy who’s done a lot of work in preparing himself for whatever his next role is, you know, and I know physically he’s like the right size and everything for a great Slade Wilson.”
Looking the part is something that Bennett revealed was important to George Perez, the artist who first drew Deathstroke. Bennett said that when he met Perez, the artist wasn’t exactly impressed with him as a casting choice, though the character’s creator Marv Wolfman was much happier with him.
“I remember meeting George Perez who drew the first Deathstroke on the Teen Titans comic cover, and when I met him at a convention I said ‘hi George I’m Manu, I’m playing Slade Wilson on Arrow‘ and he went ‘You don’t look anything like him’ and I said ‘George what do you mean?’ but then a couple of months later I met Marv Woflman and Marv Wolfman told me that he thought that I played the role perfectly so I got a major blow and then I got an uplifting kind of scenario.”
Wolfman’s approval of Bennett’s Deathstroke is important because the actor has previously been outspoken about how he feels like Arrow could have done a better job with the character, but now with two actors taking on the role in different media, Bennett thinks there’s room for both the Arrow take and Manganiello’s movie version. It was reported last month that a solo Deathstroke film is in development with Manganiello set to star, though Bennett still hasn’t quite given up hope for a solo Deathstroke television series as well.
“You know Joe, Joe’s going to do something wonderful on the big screen with him and so, maybe when that has figured itself out, because Warner Bros are behind them both, right now they just want to put it out there in the film world,” Bennett said. “I’ve done my little run, I’ve had a good last episode so now Joe will go and do something on the big screen and maybe when there’s a bit of a window in between that they’ll say that Marc [Guggenheim] can write some more stuff, maybe even a tv series! Let’s just put that one out there.”
Justice League is in theaters now. Arrow airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.
