Joe Manganiello said he doesn’t expect to reprise his role of the mercenary Deathstroke in any significant way in future DC Extended Universe projects.
The 44-year-old actor had a cameo as the character in 2017’s Justice League and Zack Snyder’s 2021 redo of the film.
Manganiello had been attached to play the character in Snyder’s sequels to the superhero ensemble picture, as well as in a Deathstroke standalone film that was to be directed by Gareth Evans and actor-director Ben Affleck’s The Batman. All of those projects were canceled.
Manganiello also anticipated making an appearance in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad but that fell through, too. When ComingSoon.net recently asked Manganiello if he planned to return to the role, he replied without elaborating: “No, I let that go a while ago.”
His comment is surprising since Warner Bros. has been working on projects about less well-known DC Comics characters such as Batgirl and Static, and Deathstroke might be a good fit for this new phase of screen adaptations. Magic Mike and True Blood alum Manganiello is also a popular voice actor who will soon be heard in the animated films and TV series, The Spine of Night, Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, Big City Greens, Dark Alliance and American Dad.
“I’ve always loved doing voices,” the actor said in his interview with ComingSoon.net. “In fact, my friends used to make me do impersonations at parties in high school.
They were instrumental in just bolstering my confidence to think that I could actually pursue an acting career. A lot of it started for me doing voices whether it was Rodney Dangerfield or Kermit the Frog or Pee-wee Herman or Arnold [Schwarzenegger], and so for me to be able to do as much voice work as I get to do, it’s fun and it’s really easy to do. And it’s a lot of fun for me.
“