Deathstroke actor Joe Manganiello might be teasing a DC return

Deathstroke in Zack Snyder's Justice League — (Image credit: Warner Bros./DC/HBO Max)

Deathstroke actor Joe Manganiello might be teasing a return to the DCEU.

The actor played the assassin in Justice League and Zack Snyder's Justice League, and was originally set to be the villain of Ben Affleck's scrapped Batman movie, which morphed into The Batman. After the Snyder Cut, the character's DCEU future has been unclear.

But a new Instagram post from Manganiello has re-ignited speculation. The picture is simply captioned "New profile pic…" and shows the actor as Deathstroke, though with some artistic additions. The actor's Twitter profile picture has also been updated. Check out the image below.

A post shared by JOE MANGANIELLO (@joemanganiello)
A photo posted by on

Whether this is actually a hint at a return to the DC universe, or really just a new profile picture, remains to be seen.

"It went from my Batman movie being canceled to negotiations with Gareth Evans for a 'Deathstroke Origins' film being canceled," Manganiello told our sister publication SFX magazine. "I worked for six months with an Oscar-nominated writer on the pitch and the outline for that project. That was six months of my life I spent on this thing that got canceled." He also explained that a version of Justice League 2 featuring him was scrapped, along with a Suicide Squad 2, a Deathstroke and Deadshot movie, and other appearances.

Manganiello teased in March 2021 that his journey as Deathstroke may not be finished: "It's also not over currently. There are little irons that are in the fire." Since then, he's also revealed more story details about the canceled Batman film, like Batgirl's inclusion and the assassin's motivation for going after the Caped Crusader.

We'll have to wait and see if Deathstroke ever returns to the DCEU, but in the meantime, check out how to watch DC movies in order for the ultimate movie marathon.

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.