In August 2016, Ben Affleck surprised everyone and revealed footage of Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke on the set of Justice League. Affleck had cast Manganiello to be the main villain in The Batman, which Affleck was directing, writing, and starring in at the time. So how did Manganiello end up with the job?

Manganiello was at Oz Comic Con in Melbourne, Australia this weekend. According to a fan on reddit, who says he was in attendance, Manganiello said that Ben Affleck and Geoff Johns were working on The Batman script which included the villain Deathstroke. Former DC Films head Jon Berg Googled “Deathstroke”, saw some fanart of Manganiello in the role, and they made the call.

I don’t think the fan is making this up, but I’m labeling this as a rumor for now until I can get confirmation from more people who were at Oz Comic Con that this story is in fact accurate. If true though, that’s pretty funny. Manganiello definitely owes the artist a beer!

Update: Joe Manganiello has commented on this story on Twitter. While he says there was a lot more to it then just the fanart, he did confirm that the fanart played a “key part” in the decision.

There was a lot more to it than that, but the artwork he did wound up playing a key part in it. — JOE MANGANIELLO (@JoeManganiello) June 9, 2018

SOURCE: reddit