Last year it was revealed that True Blood star Joe Manganiello had been cast as the DC assassin and supervillian Slade Wilson, better known as Deathstroke, for Ben Affleck’s The Batman.

His role came into question however when Affleck stepped down as director earlier this year and Matt Reeves was hired, with Reeves starting from scratch on the script and sparking rumours that Manganiello would no longer be part of the DCEU. Well, The Wrap has now revealed that Manganiello will indeed still star in the role, albeit in his own Deathstroke film with The Raid‘s Gareth Evans in talks to write and direct!

The outlet claims that Evans was initially offered the director’s chair for DC’s supernatural team-up movie Justice League Dark, but passed on the offer and then impressed executives with a pitch for Deathstroke. Warner Bros. liked the pitch so much that the studio decided to move forward with it and keep Manganiello – who has been said to have also had a small part in Justice League before Joss Whedon took over – in the role.

Created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, Deathstroke is considered the world’s deadliest assassin and one of its greatest tacticians. He is a very deadly foe with enhanced strength and reflexes and has gone up against Batman several times. He is, however, more of an enemy for the Teen Titans, a group of teen heroes and sidekicks; he made his first ever appearance in Teen Titans #2 and left his mark on the group in the fan-favourite The Judas Contract, a story which was also adapted earlier this year into an animated film. Deathstroke has also been a main antagonist on The CW’s Arrow, played by Spartacus‘ Manu Bennett.

There’s no official word on this happening yet, but DC and WB have been getting ready to branch out their films post-Justice League, with Aquaman recently wrapping filming while Wonder Woman 2 and Shazam! have recently been given release dates for 2019.

Are you excited about the prospect of a Deathstroke movie from Gareth Evans? Let us know in the comments below…