There is a whole branch of film history devoted to the films that never got made: Jodorowsky’s Dune, Tim Burton’s Superman Lives, George Miller’s Justice League: Mortal. Ben Affleck’s solo Batman film has long been a paid-up member of that ghost club, and thanks to Joe Manganiello we now know a great deal more about what the Dark Knight missed out on.
In his memoir Bloodlines, published on 13 October by Simon & Schuster, Manganiello lays out the story of the Batman film Affleck planned to write, direct, produce and star in, with Manganiello’s Deathstroke as its main villain. According to an excerpt reported by Entertainment Weekly, Affleck pitched it as “a superhero version of David Fincher’s The Game“. Rather than blowing up a bridge or poisoning the reservoir, Slade Wilson would set about taking Bruce Wayne’s life apart, one piece at a time, having been led to believe that Batman had murdered his son.
Spoilers for a film that doesn’t exist follow, so proceed at your leisure. Deathstroke would have killed Commissioner Gordon, J.K. Simmons’ version of the character, and taken Alfred hostage, with the campaign reaching all the way into the Batcave. Batgirl was in the mix too, with Deathstroke coming close to killing both her and Batman before the pair escaped on an elevated train. It would all have ended with a one-on-one brawl through the streets of Gotham, which Affleck apparently wanted to model on Tim Miller’s CGI trailer for the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game. Manganiello says it sounded good to him. It sounds rather good to us, too.
The broad idea wasn’t a total secret. Manganiello hinted at the Fincher comparison a few years ago, and the original post-credits scene of 2017’s Justice League, with Deathstroke and Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor plotting on a yacht, was built to set the film up. What’s new is the detail, and the body count.
The memoir’s real subject is darker than any Gotham rooftop. Manganiello writes about a years-long, near-fatal illness, and says the offer to play Slade Wilson arrived in 2016 while he was still recovering after collapsing on another set, giving him a reason to get better. He kept his condition hidden from Affleck and the crew. Affleck stepped back from directing in early 2017, and the project eventually turned into Matt Reeves’ The Batman, with Robert Pattinson in the cowl and an entirely different set of problems for Bruce Wayne.
Deathstroke himself isn’t finished. A film pitting him against Bane is in development for James Gunn’s DC Universe, although Manganiello isn’t expected to be back under the half-orange mask. He has said he’d happily play the part again and counts that helmet among the greatest achievements of his life, which is the sort of thing you can only say with a straight face if you’ve actually worn it.
The best Batman stories have always been the ones where somebody cleverer than the Joker decides to ruin Bruce’s week rather than the city’s. Affleck’s would have been one of them. Pity it only ever played out in Joe Manganiello’s head, and now on the page.
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