Concept Art From Ben Affleck's THE BATMAN Features Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke
As you know, before Matt Reeves jumped on board to direct The Batman, a very different version of the film was being developed by Ben Affleck. That movie would have featured a storyline that saw Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke systematically destroying Bruce Wayne’s life, his public status as Gotham City’s leading citizen, and his private existence as Batman.
This actually sounds like it could have been a great movie. Maybe in an alternate universe, it got made and exsists! Regardless, we do have some concept art to share with you from the unproduced movie that shows us what Deathstroke would have looked like in the movie. This art was created by concept artist Keith Christensen. Check it out!
When previously talking about the film Manganiello shared:
“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.”
He also explained why Deathstroke is so pissed off at Batman and what his motivation was to take him down. He believes that Batman is to blame for the death of his son. Manganiello said:
“The way it was written at the time I read the script was that Batman was blamed by Slade for the death of his son. Slate’s son gets killed. There were some events that led back to Bruce, led back to Batman. That he had a hand in it, that he was partially responsible for it. Slade blamed him. Word was on the street that Slade wanted to kill batman. That’s why he was summoned to Lex Luthor’s yacht and given a key piece of information to help with that as well. So that Slade could potentially get rid of Batman.”
What do you think about the direction that Affleck’s version of The Batman was going to go? What do you think about Deathstroke’s look?