Joe Manganiello Wants to Try His Luck in MCU With Avengers: Secret Wars After After Disappointing DCU Debut as Deathstroke
Joe Manganiello was introduced to the reputed superhero franchise with Zack Snyder’s Justice League as Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke in 2021. The American actor rose to fame with HBO’s True Blood. He played the character of a werewolf named Alcide Herveaux in the widely watched fantasy horror-drama. Last year, the Magic Mike actor made headlines after legally separating from his actor wife Sofia Vergara.
Joe Manganiello spoke about joining hands with the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the upcoming project by Filmmaker Sam Raimi’s Avengers: Secret Wars.
Joe Manganiello Would Love To Be A Part Of Sam Raimi’s Avengers: Secret Wars
Joe Manganiello is one of those actors who has been a part of both DC and Marvel. He played the character of Flash Thompson in Tobey Maguire-led Spider-Man trilogy. Before James Gunn and Peter Safran were entrusted with the responsibility of DC, Joe Manganiello played the role of the famous assassin Deathstroke in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. According to the media outlet Comicbook.com, Joe Manganiello would definitely love to be a part of Sam Raini’s upcoming project Avengers: Secret Wars. Manganiello said-
“Would I love to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? I mean, sure. Of course it’d be fun in the right project. I heard Sam Raimi’s doing Secret Wars, is that right? I don’t know, man. I don’t much about [Agent Venom], I’d imagine that’d be over at Sony. It would be very funny to come back that way.”
As reported by media outlet The Hollywood Reporter, a standalone project based on Deathstroke was axed around 2018 due to the executive changes at Warner Bros. Joe Manganiello even wrote to Gareth Evans who was supposed to direct the project based on Deathstroke, but according to the actor, it wasn’t treated as a priority. He said-
“When the dust settled, it was not seen as a priority to make a 40 million movie about a villain origin story in which you show the backstory,”
He was last seen in The Kill Room along with Uma Thurman, Maya Hawke, Liv Morgan, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Joe Manganiello Talks About Reprising The Character Of Deathstroke In The Upcoming Projects
Joe Manganiello’s Slade Wilson, famously known as Deathstroke was created by artist George Pérez and writer Marv Wolfman and debuted in The New Teen Titans #2 in December 1980. According to Comicbook.com, Joe Manganiello spoke about reprising the character of Deathstroke after Zack Snyder’s Justice League in 2021. The American actor mentioned-
“Deathstroke Origin as a series on HBO Max. Absolutely. I think it’d be such a fun series and people would absolutely love it and there’s not a lot like it out there right now. It would have its own tone and its own place within the universe. I think it would be very fun and tonally very unique.
During an interview with Entertainment Tonight in 2022, Joe Manganiello opened up on how Ben Affleck’s canceled Batman project almost shifted his priorities. He said-
“Once [Affleck’s] Batman got canceled, I kind of wrote it off and thought, ‘This is over. I had actually shifted gears and started working on the studio on an origin film for Deathstroke that also didn’t happen. So for me, I just let it go. And then two weeks before Justice League came out theatrically [in 2017], I got a call from one of the executives who said, ‘By the way, we’ve retooled the scene and it’s back in at the end to advertise a Justice League 2.”
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is currently available on Prime Video for rent.
