Justice League: 10 Ways Deathstroke Could Appear In The DCEU
Slade Wilson's coming. But what's he going to do?
Understanding that if you want your movie news to make a splash, the best thing to do is have a Twitter video, Ben Affleck yesterday revealed some behind-the-scenes footage from (presumably) the set of Justice League that provided our first look at the DCEU version of Deathstroke. Now there's a big surprise that came completely out of nowhere!
First, a quick bit on the costume. Looks f*cking good, right? Most DCEU character designs have had a rather distinct spin on the comic material, but fitting of his Bat-nemesis, this one feels like it's lifted directly from the page, a more refined version of the equally cool one we saw on Arrow a few years back.
Much of the debate has centred on who's playing Mr Wilson, with Joe Manganiello a strong favourite based on obsessive eye-hole studying and even more obsessive instagram-stalking placing him in London, but the bigger question in terms of the DCEU going forward is how, exactly, Deathstroke will figure into Justice League. Is he going to be a major antagonist alongside confirmed big bad Steppenwolf or simply set-up for a proper appearance in Ben Affleck's solo Batman movie? There's a lot of possibilities, and here's ten of the most intriguing.
10. Introducing The Bat
Justice League has an ensemble made up of (at least) six major heroes, and even if we get another 2.5 hour epic (and with Warner Bros. breathing down Zack Snyder's neck that's unlikely), we're going to need some economical introductions of all the key heroes, especially those we've met before.
For Batman V Superman, Snyder went with a more typical "Bats stopping crime" intro (something that doubled as a homage to the 1940s TV series), but now we're really expanding the world it might be a good idea to bring in a member of his rogues gallery to further personify Gotham and Bruce's war on crime. Deathstroke would be perfect to do this; a violent, uncompromising adversary who highlights how still in the grip of crime the city is, before Bats comes down hard on him.
Of course, this needn't be the last we see of Deathstroke in the DCEU - just because he's locked up now doesn't mean he can't fester in Blackgate before returning as a full-on adversary down the line.