Joe Manganiello Addresses Potential Deathstroke Return After Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is giving quite a few actors a second chance at a missed opportunity – and one of them is Joe Manganiello. The original plans for the DC Films Universe saw Manganiello making his debut as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke in Justice League, before getting a larger role in Ben Affleck’s Batman Solo movie. Manganiello even had a Deathstroke solo film with The Raid director Gareth Evans at one point – but all of that went sideways when Snyder left Justice League, and the franchise did a hard left turn into new era. So what does Joe Manganiello think, now that Zack Snyder’s Justice League is back in play?

According to Joe Manganiello, the hype over Justice League‘s Snyder Cut means he isn’t ruling anything out, when it comes to his future as Deathstroke. As the actor tells THR in a new interview: “I think there’s going to be excitement over continuing what Zack was up to.”

Indeed, Joe Manganiello strikes a chord that’s currently reverberating through the DC fandom – as well as mainstream media. The big question everyone is wondering is: what does the success of Zack Snyder’s Justice League mean?

If there are massive numbers of streams for the Snyder Cut, it will be nearly impossible to dismiss Snyder’s vision of the DC movie universe and the resonance it has with fans. No matter the viewership numbers and/or response, Zack Snyder’s Justice League will inevitably raise new continuity debates about which version of the film correlates to DC movies going forward; if it’s indeed Snyder’s Cut, then Deathstroke’s next chapter will be bone fans won’t be willing to let go of easily.

Hopefully, that’s the sort of plan Warner Bros. and DC have in mind – because the earlier statements that Snyder’s Justice League is a “cul-de-sac” of storytelling may be hard to live up to, pretty soon.

Speaking to ComicBook.com late last year, Joe Manganiello talked about getting the call from Zack Snyder to come back for Justice League, and just how lethal his version of Slade Wilson/Deathstroke is in Snyder’s world:

“I was happy to get that call from Zack,” Manganiello told us. “There’s been so much disappointment over the past four years,” Manganiello said. “There were probably seven different Deathstroke projects that were all canceled. So, when you keep getting that phone call over and over again, you have to let it go for your own sanity. So, getting that call from Zack to put the suit back on, it was fun.

It was weird because it’s four years later. Four years later. But I had had a lot of thoughts after all those false starts about the character and what I wanted to do with the character. So, when Zack called me up, I got to really put my stink on him in a few different ways that were very satisfying… Deathstroke is a nasty, nasty dude, and especially the new version,” Manganiello says. “He’s new and improved.”

Zack Snyder’s Justice League will stream on HBO Max on March 19th.