Joe Manganiello Teases Surprising New Deathstroke Plans After Advice From James Gunn (Exclusive)

It has taken a long time to get there, but it appears Joe Managaniello is finally ready to say goodbye to Deathstroke the Terminator. Speaking with ComicBook.com about the upcoming Deal or No Deal Island, the beloved actor and personality said that while he is friends with James Gunn, that connection has pushed him more toward stepping away from Deathstroke than fighting to keep the part. After appearing briefly in Justice League, the actor was set to play the primary antagonist in Ben Affleck’s The Batman, until that movie fell apart. Then, Manganiello wrote his own Deathstroke screenplay that apparently had some fans at Warner Bros. before the studio decided to reboot DC’s shared universe of movies.

After almost a decade, Manganiello told us that Gunn convinced him to let it go. That’s not before DC made one last overture, though — one that could signal to fans that the comics side is open to revisiting the “dead” universes that lit up screens prior to 2024.

“James [Gunn] is my buddy, and James and I had a conversation about it because Jim lee over at DC Comics wanted me to create agraphic novel series based on the screenplay that I wrote for the Deathstroke origin film that, when they were dismantling the DCEU, that went to the wayside as well,” Manganiello said. “Jim read it, and wanted it to be a graphic novel series, but no one could assure me that, if it garnered the attention of directors and producers, that I couldn’t be attached. So I had to let it go. James Gunn was just like, ‘Let it go.’”

Starting with recasting Superman for the upcoming film Superman: Legacy, nearly every character featured in the “DC Extended Universe” — an unofficial name for Zack Snyder’s shared superhero space which eventually became at least semi-official — has since been abandoned or recast. The only actors returning for James Gunn’s DC Universe so far are the cast of Peacemaker and Xolo Maridueña’s Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle.

Deal or No Deal Island‘s supersized premiere airs February 26th at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC before moving to its regular timeslot at 10 p.m. ET/PT on March 4th. All episodes will be available next day on Peacock.