Deathstroke actor Joe Manganiello reveals Batman characters would have died in Ben Affleck's movie

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

Joe Magnaniello, who plays Deathstroke in the DCEU, has revealed that key characters were set to die in Ben Affleck's scrapped Batman movie.

"Some of the regular characters who showed up in Batman, in Batman films, were not going to make it through. So it was going to be a cleaning house in a lot of ways," he said at the fan-organized Justice Con event.

While there were no further hints as to who wouldn't have made it out of the movie alive, "regular Batman characters" calls to mind figures like Commissioner Gordon or Alfred Pennyworth.

Manganiello has been very open about canceled plans for his character in the DCEU, including what the scrapped Batfleck movie would have involved. The film would have seen Deathstroke doing his best to destroy Bruce Wayne's life, because the mercenary blamed Batman for the death of his son.

Batgirl also would have been involved, and at Justice Con, Manganiello teased what an action sequence involving Batman, Batgirl, and Deathstroke would have looked like: "At one point there was an action sequence in the middle where Deathstroke just completely mauls Batman and Batgirl at the same time. Just, the two of them against Deathstroke are no match, and he just mops the floor up with them, and they narrowly escape. It was definitely going to be a lot of fun."

While the Batman film seems unlikely to happen, fans have been busy campaigning to bring a separate scrapped project detailing Deathstroke's origin story back to life as a HBO Max series, with the hashtag #DeathstrokeHBOMax trending on Twitter. Manganiello himself joined in, and posted a new picture of his character to accompany the hashtag. The campaign is part of the wider #RestoreTheSnyderVerse movement, which aims to get Justice League 2 and 3 made, as well as projects like the Deathstroke origin story and Affleck's scrapped film.

What was originally the Batfleck movie is now the Matt Reeves-directed The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson. It's set for release March 4, 2022. 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.