For a time, it seemed like Deathstroke (a.k.a. Slade Wilson) was going to be a big deal in the DCEU. He popped up inJustice League, he was going to be the main villain in a new series ofBatmanmovies, he was going to get his own movie, and they castJoe Manganielloto play the part. Then it all just fizzled out whenJustice Leaguebombed even though Deathstroke popped up in a post-credits scene that teased the emergence of the Legion of Doom.
Back inOctober 2017, we reported thatThe RaidhelmerGareth Evanswas in talks to direct the Deathstroke movie, but as Evans does press for his new movie,Apostle, it sounds like the film is on the backburner and he hasn’t had any talks about it for a while according toComicBook.com:
“Nothing really went beyond those conversations. I haven’t heard anything for a really long time,” the director noted. “To be honest, every time I see an article written I keep wanting to ask, ‘Okay, what is it you guys know that I don’t know?’ Because I haven’t heard anything for a good while yet. So I don’t know if that will ever come back full circle at some point. But I know I haven’t had any conversation about that project for a long time now.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if a Deathstroke movie dead and buried at this point. Like Zack Snyder’s vision for where he wanted to take the DCEU, Warner Bros. appears to have abandoned that path and instead is focusing on individual movies rather than trying to weave together a complicated movie universe. That’s not to say they couldn’t do a Deathstroke movie, but the character doesn’t seem like a slam dunk in the way where you can easily sell him like you can withShazam!(i.e.Big, but with superheroes). That’s not to say that a Deathstroke movie is dead, but I wouldn’t count on seeing the live-action character again anytime soon.
But if you’re super hard-up for Deathstroke in a feature film, I highly recommend checking outTeen Titans Go! To the Movieswhere he just goes by “Slade”.
