‘The Raid’ Director Clarifies ‘Deathstroke’ Reports, Praises Joe Manganiello

Joe Manganiello debuted as Deathstroke in the DC Extended Universe in a Justice League post-credits scene, yet no official details have emerged about when we could see the character again. The Raid director Gareth Evans was previously linked to the project, though he recently clarified how casual those talks were and how devoted Manganiello is to the character.

“I had a phone call which I think was publicized a bit, about Deathstroke with DC. We talked about that before, we had a few conversations,” Evans confirmed with ComicBook.com. “One of the guys at DC and at Warner Brothers, one with Joe, who has been on the character for some time now, who is super passionate about that character, by the way. I’ve never met anyone who knows more about their character.”

The filmmaker admitted that, while he wasn’t familiar with the character when those talks began, his research inspired a few different avenues in which to explore the character, despite none of those concepts being fleshed out.

“I was feeling my way around it and did a bit of research and read a couple of those comic books. I started to dig in to the origin stories,” Evans noted. “I like to figure out what the origin of a character is and what shapes them, what paints them as a personality. There’s been a few iterations, actually, of his origin, which is interesting to see. There was the original way his character was created and then there’s been a few creative licenses taken in terms of how he lost his eye, for example, and stuff like that. So, it was an interesting sort of experience.”

It’s unclear how those conversations fizzled out, but Evans didn’t seem disheartened that nothing ever came of it.

“Nothing really went beyond those conversations. I haven’t heard anything for a really long time,” the director noted. “To be honest, every time I see an article written I keep wanting to ask, ‘Okay, what is it you guys know that I don’t know?’ Because I haven’t heard anything for a good while yet. So I don’t know if that will ever come back full circle at some point. But I know I haven’t had any conversation about that project for a long time now.”

One of the latest updates about the project came from Manganiello himself earlier this summer, promising fans that the solo film was still “in the works.” However, the DCEU has a tendency to tease fans with a number of projects that could be in the works that receive schedule shifts, delays, and possible cancellations, so it’s difficult to say whether or not that film will ever happen.

Stay tuned for details on a possible Deathstroke film.

Evans’ latest film, Apostle, lands on Netflix on October 12th.

Do you wish Evans would have developed the film? Let us know in the comments below!