Joe Manganiello has laid out what Ben Affleck‘s solo Batman movie would have looked like, and it would have opened a brutal war between the Dark Knight and Deathstroke. In his new memoir, Bloodlines, Manganiello writes that the never-made film would have had Deathstroke kill Commissioner Gordon, take Alfred Pennyworth hostage and break into the Batcave, Entertainment Weekly reports.
Manganiello briefly played Slade Wilson’s Deathstroke in 2017’s Justice League and was set to return as the main villain of the Batman film Affleck planned to write, direct, produce and star in. None of it was ever shot, so everything Manganiello describes is the plan as Affleck pitched it to him.
A superhero take on The Game
According to Manganiello, Affleck wanted the film to be “a superhero version of David Fincher’s The Game,” with Deathstroke setting out to “dismantle Batman’s entire life” after being led to believe that Batman had murdered his son.
Gordon’s death, Alfred’s kidnapping and the Batcave break-in would all have been part of that revenge plan. Manganiello also describes a mid-movie fight in which “Deathstroke would nearly kill both Batman and Batgirl before they would both escape via an aboveground train.” In his telling, both heroes get away. EW notes that Manganiello doesn’t say who might have played Batgirl, a character who never appeared in that version of DC’s film universe.
The film would have ended with a “climactic one-on-one showdown through the streets of Gotham.” EW reports that Affleck said the finale would draw on a CGI fight sequence Tim Miller directed for the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game.
“It sounded good to me,” Manganiello writes. “I told Ben how great I thought his films were, especially The Town, and how I was really looking forward to seeing his Best Picture version of a Batman movie.”
“You’re in good hands”
Manganiello writes that he told Affleck that writing, directing, producing and starring in the movie sounded like “a lot” for one person. “Is there another comp of this size where one person has worn all those hats? What, Mel [Gibson] with Braveheart maybe? And that wasn’t close to this big,” he recalls saying.
Affleck’s answer, as Manganiello tells it: “Yeah, I know…But don’t worry, you’re in good hands. You’re in good hands, man.”
The movie never got made. EW points out that Affleck told Jimmy Kimmel in 2019 that he “couldn’t crack” the project, and told The New York Times in 2020 that someone who read his script warned him, “I also think you’ll drink yourself to death if you go through what you just went through again.” Robert Pattinson took over the role in Matt Reeves’ 2022 film The Batman, whose sequel is wrapping up its shoot with help from Steven Soderbergh.
Affleck has also been looking back on that era. On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he called the Justice League reshoots “the low point of my career,” Variety reports. EW says it has reached out to representatives for Affleck and DC for comment.
