Zack Snyder recently set the internet buzzing by sharing a never-before-seen photo of Henry Cavill's Superman, and the filmmaker has now posted a new shot of Joe Manganiello as Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke.
"This I shot with my Leica monochrome and my modified 50mm dream lens by @zerooptik thank you @joemanganiello for being a perfect Deathstroke," Snyder captioned his post.
The True Blood alum only got to suit-up as Slade Wilson for a brief Justice League post-credits stinger (he also appeared in Snyder's director's cut), and while he was all set to return as the main villain of Ben Affleck's Batman movie, everything changed when the actor/director decided to part ways with the project and Matt Reeves was brought on to deliver his own take on The Dark Knight.
During a 2020 interview with Yahoo, Manganiello shared some new details on Affleck's now defunct script, drawing comparisons to David Fincher's 1997 thriller, The Game.
“It was a really dark story in which Deathstroke was like a shark or a horror movie villain that was dismantling Bruce’s life from the inside out. It was this systemic thing: He killed everyone close to Bruce and destroyed his life to try and make him suffer because he felt that Bruce was responsible for something that happened to him.”
There was some speculation that Manganiello might be set to return to the role shortly after it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran had taken over as DC Studios' co CEOs, but it really doesn't seem likely at this stage. There are plans to introduce a new take on Wilson in the DCU, however, with Captain America: Brave New World writer Matthew Orton enlisted to pen the script for a Deathstroke and Bane movie last year.
Though Snyder posting these photos has ignited speculation among the #RestoreTheSnyderVerse faithful, we doubt there's much to it beyond the filmmaker sharing his work to his new Instagram account.
Gunn and Snyder have been in contact since the news that the DCEU was being rebooted as the DCU was announced, but the chances of the latter returning to the fold seem pretty slim. Still, the fact that Gunn and DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran will continue to develop Elseworlds projects means we can't completely rule anything out.
“You know, I’m a pretty open book. I really feel like, you know, if the characters are treated with reverence, and mythologically correct, then I’m down. I’m in,” Snyder said when asked about the DCU relaunch last year. “Let’s see what happens. I’m pretty excited. I mean, we’re going to get Superman pretty soon, so we’ll see what that’s like.”
When asked on Threads if he'd seen Snyder's comments about being "excited for the DCU," Gunn responded: “I didn’t, but I knew it already because he’s texted me. He’s been incredibly supportive throughout this process."