Proof That Manganiello's Deathstroke Is No Longer in The Batman?

The CW’sArrowSeason 5 was arguably the biggest season in the show’s history and hype has just been ramped up considerably with the return of Manu Bennett’s portrayal of fan-favorite Deathstroke. Deathstroke hasn’t been aroundArrowsince Season 2 (unless you count the end of Season 5), which is strange because the character was the main antagonist in the show. As it turns out, Deathstroke was written out of the show becauseDC had bigger plansfor the character to show up in the DCEU’sThe Batmanwhen Ben Affleck was still on board as director. But apparently those big screen plans for Deathstroke are over as Season 6 ofArrowis set to bring the character back.

Ben Affleck teased that Deathstroke would be inThe Batmanand shortly after, it was confirmed thatJoe Manganiello(True Blood) would be playing the assassin in Affleck’s version ofThe Batman. Obviously, a lot has changed for the project in a year with Affleck’s script tossed in the garbage and rewritten by new director,Matt Reeves. Many question if Affleck is still even attached to the project since no official word has come out and said whether the actor is in or out.

Ben Affleck originally wanted to utilize a villain that had not been seen in aBatmanmovie andDeathstrokewas the perfect fit, so DC pulled the character from theArrowtelevision series to bring the character up to the big leagues.Arrowshowrunner, Marc Guggenheim, recently talked toColliderabout the next season ofArrowincluding Deathstroke as well as the DCEU’s recent lack of interest for the character. Guggenheim had this to say.

“It was actually a function of… DC controls these characters, and we went through a period where DC was like, ‘We’ve got plans for Deathstroke that don’t involveArrow.’ That changed at the end of the year.”

Guggenheim’s comments seem to confirm what everybody has been talking about for months about Deathstroke’s involvement inThe Batman. Many assumed this to be the case after Joe Manganiello recently claimed that he had no idea what was happening with the project and after the news that Matt reeves was starting a brand-new script from scratch.

It was also heavily rumored that Deathstroke could show up in theupcoming Justice Leagueafter Zack Snyder shared some storyboard images with the character and Lex Luthor. In has also been heavily rumored that Lex Luthor has been taken out ofJustice Leaguecompletely, which seems to indicate the Deathstroke would be gone as well. The reason that the scenes were cut is anybody’s guess, but it certainly points to Deathstroke not being a part of the DCEU.

Whatever the case may be, it is almost certain that we will not see Deathstroke inThe Batmanand becoming more and more likely that Ben Affleck may be out as well. Matt Reeves has been rumored to be writing theJokerinto the script (which would be crazy for the DCEU, if true) and the Scarecrow, all of which have been prominently shown in pastBatmanmovies. So, it’s some good news/bad news for DC fans. Fans ofArrowshould be excited to get Deathstroke} back while fans of the mythicalBatmanmovie might be a little irritated at this time. The DCEU is a very confusing place at this time, that’s for sure.