What Joe Manganiellos HBO Max Deathstroke Show Would Look Like

With all the story potential for Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke, HBO Max should consider doing a series centered around the DCEU's Slade Wilson. One of the characters who was going to have a significant arc in the DCEU was the DC villain Deathstroke, played by Manganiello. Initially, Ben Affleck's The Batman movie would have featured Slade going up against the Dark Knight. There was also a Deathstroke solo film in the works for Manganiello, with Gareth Evans directing. However, things drastically changed after Joss Whedon retooled Zack Snyder's Justice League in 2017. Since then, The Batman has become a reboot for Robert Pattinson, and Deathstroke became one of many DC films that was scrapped.

Manganiello has spoken about pitching several Deathstroke ideas to Warner Bros. and how he was initially in Suicide Squad 2 before James Gunn boarded the project, now known as The Suicide Squad. Fans got a more prominent taste of Deathstroke in Zack Snyder's Justice League, in which his original scene with Lex Luthor was included. But Snyder also included Slade in a newly-added Knightmare sequence where Deathstroke is part of Batman's resistance force against Darkseid and the corrupted Superman. From everything Manganiello has revealed, a social media campaign has come to life with the #DeathstrokeHBOMax hashtag, something the actor has been in favor of as well.

Since HBO Max is becoming a bigger platform for Warner Bros.'s DC properties, Deathstroke would be a refreshing addition. Deathstroke has appeared in several live-action DC properties, including Smallville, Arrow, and Titans, where he has been a formidable enemy. But as Warner Bros. has been exploring villains in their own projects like Joker and Black Adam, it is time for Deathstroke to get his own property. An HBO Max series would allow the DC foe to have his story told from his perspective. It would also play into Warner Bros.'s strategy of focusing on superheroes and their supervillains.

When Slade was introduced in the Snyder Cut, he had already been Deathstroke for a long time since he and Batman were enemies at this point. But how did Slade become the infamous mercenary? According to Manganiello, this version of Deathstroke does not have any superpowers like the source material. That would raise the stakes for a Deathstroke show where Slade would only be able to depend on his human skills. A TV show can also go into Slade's time in the military, which is a big part of his background that's typically overlooked in other media.

According to Manganiello, characters like Adeline Kane and Billy Wintergreen were part of his Deathstroke pitch. Through Slade's military background, Adeline and Wintergreen would be able to be part of that. In the comics, Slade meets them during his time as a soldier, which would be a great storyline for a Deathstroke show to add. Since most live-action Deathstrokes are usually already the titular villain by the time they show up in other TV shows, Manganiello's version would be able to stand out if the series started as a prequel.