After the highly anticipated Zack Snyder’s Justice League gave DC fans another glimpse at Joe Manganiello’s little-seen on-screen portrayal of Deathstroke, those fans have been using the hashtag #DeathstrokeHBOMax on social media to encourage Warner Bros. to give the character his own streaming series. Now, Manganiello himself has joined the conversation, tweeting out the #DeathstrokeHBOMax hashtag with a black-and-white image of himself in costume.
In the post-credits scene of Joss Whedon’s theatrical cut of Justice League, Lex Luthor invites Deathstroke onto his yacht and proposes starting their own league for supervillains. In Snyder’s director’s cut, the conversation goes a little differently, as Luthor tells Deathstroke that Batman’s secret identity is Bruce Wayne. It’s since been revealed that Deathstroke was being primed to appear as the main villain in Ben Affleck’s unproduced Batman solo movie. Since Affleck’s movie has been scrapped and the Batman franchise is being rebooted by Matt Reeves with Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight, a series on HBO Max would make a great consolation prize for Deathstroke.
Warner Bros. caving to fan pressure and pumping $70 million into finishing the fabled Snyder cut has made a lot of DCEU fans very happy, but it’s also set a precedent for fans to pester studios until they get what they want. The release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League has led to a new social media campaign that hopes to take things one step further and #RestoreTheSnyderVerse. There are also calls for Warner Bros. to release David Ayer’s darker original cut of Suicide Squad. #DeathstrokeHBOMax is just the DC fan base’s latest attempt to control the direction of the franchise.
Although his role in the DCEU has been severely limited so far, Deathstroke has the potential to be a fan-favorite character. Manganiello has a proven track record of cool-as-ice, charismatic performances and Deathstroke is one of the DC Comics universe’s greatest badasses. Before Deadpool evolved into his own foul-mouthed, fourth-wall-breaking beast, he was conceived as a shallow rip-off of Deathstroke. They’re both masked, sword-wielding mercenaries and their real names are Slade Wilson and Wade Wilson, respectively.
Much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been expanding into streaming since the advent of Disney Plus, the DC Extended Universe is planning its own streaming expansion with its own corporate overlords’ streaming service. For instance, James Gunn has created a Peacemaker spin-off starring John Cena that will air on HBO Max.
There are also Constantine and Justice League Dark shows in development, as well as a police procedural about the cops in the version of Gotham City that Matt Reeves will introduce in The Batman.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is now available on HBO Max.
Source: Joe Manganiello/Twitter