For DC fans that saw Justice League in the theater and then again when Zack Snyder‘s Justice League was release last week there was one scene that almost seemed exactly the same, the meeting of the villains (arriving pre-credits in the extended cut). In both sequences, none other than Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke appears and speaks with Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor on a yacht. In the theatrical version the later muses on how the villains of the DCEU need a team of their own in response to the Justice League, in Zack Snyder’s version however Luthor offers a gift to Deathstroke, the secret identity of Batman. Now Manganiello has offered some context to the scene and how it would have impacted his next appearance as the character.
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“You could kind of like infer from the proper Justice League end credit scene. Slade is summoned by Luther, who offers a peace offering of information to Slade,” Manganiello told ComicBook.com’s Comic Book Nation podcast in an exclusive interview. “So basically: Slade lost his son. And he blamed Batman for it. Batman had a hand in it. And Luthor summons him to his yacht. And gives him a key piece of information that Batman’s secret identity is Bruce Wayne. So now he’s setting loose this unstoppable force on Gotham City and Bruce Wayne.”
As fans may recall, the original plan for after Justice League was for Ben Affleck to reprise his part as Batman in a new solo movie, which he would also direct, that featured Manganiello’s villain. Manganiello further addressed how this post-credit scene set up the solo Batman movie, adding:
“The Batman film was going to be kind of similar to like.. You know, imagine if David Fincher’s The Game was real, you know? [Deathstroke] systematically dismantles Bruce’s life and starts murdering all the people in it,” he began. “Destroys his finances and just basically paints him into a corner… But it was like a real psychological thriller and Deathstroke was kind of like a horror movie villain, you know, like a shark, kind of like like Jaws.”
That’s not all though, Manganiello also noted that the film would have seen another DC hero make an appearance with Batgirl appearing to help fight Deathstroke with Batman.
Unfortunately it’s unclear if Warner Bros. will continue to use Manganiello in the role in future DC movies as they seem to be moving away from Zack Snyder’s interpretations of the characters, not to mention they’ve already got another actor playing Batman in an upcoming movie. Manganiello isn’t giving up the hope though, telling us: “It’s all there and I think it would really be a shame if the fans never got to see that. I would go to my grave unhappy.”
