Deathstroke Teased For Ben Affleck Solo Batman

IMAGE VIA DC COMICS

Oh, Ben Affleck you teasing bastard.

It was like any other boring/laidback bank holiday Monday (29th August) for people in the UK that was until Affleck decided to break the Twitter and blow every fanboy and girl’s mind when he released this test footage.

https://t.co/0NsNzCtGip

— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) 29 August 2016

In case you didn’t know, this is Deathstroke aka Slade Wilson, a well-known Batman villain and super-assassin.

After this footage dropped, The Wrap’s Umberto Gonzalez revealed Wilson will be the main villain in Affleck’s solo Batman film.

This news surprised many fans because unlike the popular Batman rogues like The Joker and The Riddler, but Deathstroke has been brought into live action in season two of Sky One’s Arrow and was played brilliantly by Manu Bennett.

IMAGE VIA THE CW

Earlier in the year, Arrow creator Marc Guggenheim was asked why Wilson wouldn’t be returning to the TV show. “The character of Slade Wilson is currently tied up in another DC project” he replied on a Tumblr post.

The character was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez and first appeared in Teen Titans #2 in 1980 and in the comics he’s had several run-ins with The Dark Knight. The first dating back to 1991 in Deathstroke’s standalone DC Comic called "City of Assassins" where he beat Batman to a bloody pulp. Also, in 2009 he was ranked as IGN’s 32nd greatest comic book villain of all time.

IMAGE VIA DC COMICS

Even though the footage shows Deathstroke on the set of Justice League onboard the Flying Fox with the Batmobile behind him there’s no indication we will see him in the superhero team-up and I hope he doesn’t.

Don’t get me wrong he’s an awesome, badass character, however, Justice League as a crap load of characters we haven’t got to know and met properly yet so save this character for the Batman film.

Meanwhile, speculation has already begun to who could be playing the man behind the helmet and the top candidate is True Blood and Magic Mike star, Joe Manganiello.

Manganiello is currently in London, where Justice League is filming, and recently started following DC kingpin and director Zack Snyder and he’s also supporting a new haircut.

Lovely London dinner w this dude & his Mrs Friday nite@JoeManganiello @SofiaVergara #notthebestselfieiveevertaken pic.twitter.com/iO55cxQq4P

— Stephen Moyer (@smoyer) 29 August 2016

This isn’t the first time Manganiello has been linked to playing Deathstroke as it was previously rumoured he’d show up in Suicide Squad, but that never happened.

I personally would like to see a story similar to Court of Owls, but change it a little bit with Deathstroke working for a forgotten Gotham cult and hired to take out Batman and have it include a gang led by Black Mask. Then by the end of the film, we get introduced to other villains in the Batman comics. 

If you want to see what a Batman/Deathstroke fight scene would look like2016 then watch this Arkham Origins trailer directed by Deadpool’s Tim Miller.