Joe Manganiello and Ray Fisher are two actors that share a common bond. Both actors portrayed characters in last year’s “Justice League.” And before those characters, Deathstroke and Cyborg, respectively, could make their debuts in the superhero team-up film, Warner Bros. began developing spin-off films. And now, despite the critical and box office failure of “Justice League,” both Manganiello and Fisher are still beating the drum, hoping beyond reason that their solo films will be made. But a new interview with one of the rumored directors of “Deathstroke” might put to bed any talk of that character seeing a spin-off.
Manganiello is perhaps the bigger cheerleader of the two aforementioned actors, talking about his “Deathstroke” solo film at any free moment. Over the summer, he even confirmed that the film was still in development. However, according to a new interview with director Gareth Evans, we are starting to believe that a “Deathstroke” standalone film is almost as likely as a solo Ben Affleck “Batman” film. That is to say, very, very unlikely.
Evans, best known for his ‘Raid’ films and the upcoming “Apostle,” explained to Comicbook.com, “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. 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.”
“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 into the origin stories,” Evans continued.
He added, “Nothing really went beyond those conversations. I haven’t heard anything for a really long time. 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.”
It sure does sound like a “Deathstroke” film was a real possibility at one point (pre-“Justice League”) but has stalled in the interim. Sadly, for Manganiello, the character was introduced during a time when Zack Snyder was leading the charge in the DCEU. Now, it appears that with the new direction the film slate seems to be moving in, there might not be a slot for “Deathstroke.”