Deathstroke actor Joe Manganiello has opened up about the impact the cancellation of Ben Affleck’s Batman movie had on him.
Magnaliello, who popped up as Deathstroke brielfy at the end of Zack Snyder's Justice League, was set to reprise the role in as the lead antagonist in a standalone Batman film. Manganiello was battling an autoimmune disease at the time, which saw his weight drop from 235 to 176 pounds. Deathstroke, he said, was his reason to push forward and get back to full health.
“I just knew I needed to fight. I needed to get in better shape, I needed to gain the weight back that I had lost in the hospital,” he told Entertainment Weekly. The movie was reportedly ambitious, planning to tie together 80 years of Batman mythos.
As well as starring alongside Manganiello as the Caped Crusader himself, Ben Affleck was originally down to write and direct the Batman movie before stepping down as director. The film was eventually canned, with Snyder's DCEU falling by the wayside with the release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in 2023. These changes meant Manganiello’s appearance as Deathstroke was also doomed.
"I lost my mind when that happened,” Manganiello said of Batman's cancellation. “It was so tough. Because I took me being offered that role as the villain of Batman as the universe saying it’s gonna be okay. And when it went away, I didn’t have that to fight for anymore. And it was almost like, I now looked in the mirror, and for the first time since getting sick and having surgery, I saw the scars and I realized this didn’t happen to someone else — this happened to you.
“At the time I saw it as being unlucky. What I came to understand through the full journey was that I was lucky to get it. It was never meant to be for me. It was there to make sure I didn’t stop fighting, and that I was in the best shape possible for when they tried to reconnect my digestive system.”
While Manganiello has come to terms with the loss of the role and recovered from his health issues, there’s still a part of Deathstroke he can’t let go of. “You know, I have that helmet from when I got to play him for the first time sitting in my office and I look at it every day, and it’s the greatest achievement of my life,” Manganiello said when asked if he’d still be up for playing the character. “I’ve been to hell and back. You want a warrior? You know who to call.”
Affleck himself recently discussed the collapse of his Batman movie, telling the Happy Sad Confused podcast that the experience of working on Justice League turned him off to the idea of having to helm a movie in the DC universe.
"The truth is, the experience of Justice League was so, so negative for lots of different reasons," Affleck said. "Some of which having to do with where I was personally, some of which having to do with the tragedy that happened during the time, and also the fact that I really saw how not to make a movie like that when the studio is at odds with the filmmaker. You're really making a mistake. That was what really doomed that."
Filming is currently underway for The Batman Part 2, which sees Robert Pattinson and Matt Reeves team up to continue the story of a young Batman figuring out where his moral line is. While filming had been underway for a few months, The Batman Part 2 recently halted filming as the director stepped away for personal reasons. It’s planned for an early 2028 release.