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So the new Bats flick could be interesting. They're throwing Deathstroke in!

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2016/09/08/joe-manganiello-will-play-deathstroke-in-ben-afflecks-batman-movie/

Batman will face comic book villain Deathstroke, played by “True Blood” star Joe Manganiello, in Ben Affleck’s first solo movie playing the Dark Knight.

Affleck recently shared a video online of Manganiello in his Deathstroke get-up, but didn’t reveal the actor underneath the mask or what role the character would play in upcoming films.

The actor is also known for his role in the “Magic Mike” Movies.

DC Entertainment president and chief creative officer Geoff Johns confirmed the casting in his first interview discussing his new role overseeing Warner Bros.’ movies based on DC Comics characters.

He declined to comment on whether Deathstroke has a cameo in “Justice League,” which is currently shooting in London.

Also this from Ben Affleck's Twitter

https://twitter.com/BenAffleck

Meh. Of all the villains I wanted to see, Deathstroke is definitely not on that list. I'd rather see a new Riddler or Two-Face

 jreilly89 wrote:
Meh. Of all the villains I wanted to see, Deathstroke is definitely not on that list. I'd rather see a new Riddler or Two-Face

I think the idea is to stay away from the Schumacher villains for the time being.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 jreilly89 wrote:
Meh. Of all the villains I wanted to see, Deathstroke is definitely not on that list. I'd rather see a new Riddler or Two-Face

I think the idea is to stay away from the Schumacher villains for the time being.

Agreed. Two-Face and Riddler are kinda boring villains anyway.

Ra's Al Ghul, (Nolan's) Bane and the Joker are probably the best of the villains for DC Movies so far. In my opinion, that is.

 angelofvengeance wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 jreilly89 wrote:
Meh. Of all the villains I wanted to see, Deathstroke is definitely not on that list. I'd rather see a new Riddler or Two-Face

I think the idea is to stay away from the Schumacher villains for the time being.

Agreed. Two-Face and Riddler are kinda boring villains anyway.

Ra's Al Ghul, (Nolan's) Bane and the Joker are probably the best of the villains for DC Movies so far. In my opinion, that is.

One from the previous films I would like to see done justice in a new one is Mister Freeze. Arkham nailed him, Gotham nailed him, but in a film I feel he could be a really, really compelling character; he's sympathetic and tragic enough that he wouldn't even need to be the villain of the piece, he could simply play a side part and give the writers and actors scope for some amazing character work.

I do hope that by the time they're done with however many Batfleck films we're getting, we have at least cameos from all the 'big guys of the Batman mythos'- Joker, Ra's, Two-face, Riddler, Ivy, Penguin, Freeze, Bane, Catwoman, Scarecrow... No need for them all to be main villains, but just a brief scene for each at some point would be nice. Bats interrogates Riddler for a lead on [Insert Main Villain Here], or busts Penguin's arms deal with the Big Bad ect. It's a lot to hope for, but DC do seem to be taking a 'no holds barred' approach towards just throwing in characters and references and building a really comic-booky universe, so I do expect we'll see most of them at some point.

Back to the topic, though, dead excited for Deathstroke, the casting looks good (no idea if he can act, but he looks the part) and that costume design is awesome.

He can act will enough. He had a running part in TruBlood and I really liked his character and he can do intense acting well enough. I'm excited for this news

Manganiello has been rumored to be connected to this role for quite a while. Originally I think the rumor was that he'd be in SS. I think he'll do just fine, but I may be biased because he's a Steelers fan who landed Sofia Vergara.

Clearly the video was just a test of the costume, but considering that The Batman (or whatever Affleck's film is called) won't shoot for a while...yeah, I think a JL cameo may be in the works. Deathstroke seems awfully ready to go for a character supposedly years away.

I also hazard to guess that Deathstroke won't be the only villain in the Batman movie. The rumors keep circulating that Affleck's film will have some elements of the classic Arkham Asylum graphic novel, in which Batman encounters a number of his classic villains.

Nolan's Ra's Al Ghul seemed to be beyond stupid - not sure how is in the comics but he made zero sense other than to give Batman super ninja training and was a major weak spot in the first Batman film.

The Scarecrow on the other hand was great - and then sadly thrown away.

A good Poison Ivy would be fun, Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman was a high spot in a weak 2nd film by Tim Burton.

I was kinda Hoping Harley and the Joker would be returning to Gotham after SS

 Paradigm wrote:

 angelofvengeance wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 jreilly89 wrote:
Meh. Of all the villains I wanted to see, Deathstroke is definitely not on that list. I'd rather see a new Riddler or Two-Face

I think the idea is to stay away from the Schumacher villains for the time being.

Agreed. Two-Face and Riddler are kinda boring villains anyway.

Ra's Al Ghul, (Nolan's) Bane and the Joker are probably the best of the villains for DC Movies so far. In my opinion, that is.

One from the previous films I would like to see done justice in a new one is Mister Freeze. Arkham nailed him, Gotham nailed him, but in a film I feel he could be a really, really compelling character; he's sympathetic and tragic enough that he wouldn't even need to be the villain of the piece, he could simply play a side part and give the writers and actors scope for some amazing character work.

He's outwardly sympathetic and tragic enough. If you haven't, you should read the "Court of Owls"/"City of Owls"/"Night of Owls" stuff that went down. We get to see a side of the whole Victor and Nora thing which makes it...less than sympathetic and tragic.

I do hope that by the time they're done with however many Batfleck films we're getting, we have at least cameos from all the 'big guys of the Batman mythos'- Joker, Ra's, Two-face, Riddler, Ivy, Penguin, Freeze, Bane, Catwoman, Scarecrow... No need for them all to be main villains, but just a brief scene for each at some point would be nice. Bats interrogates Riddler for a lead on [Insert Main Villain Here], or busts Penguin's arms deal with the Big Bad ect. It's a lot to hope for, but DC do seem to be taking a 'no holds barred' approach towards just throwing in characters and references and building a really comic-booky universe, so I do expect we'll see most of them at some point.

Back to the topic, though, dead excited for Deathstroke, the casting looks good (no idea if he can act, but he looks the part) and that costume design is awesome.

Pretty well agreed here.

Funny enough, the Owls stuff is next on my reading list, just need to finish up some N52 Green Lantern stuff. I'd actually love to see the Court feature in a Batman movie as well, they're so different to the majority of his villains, but they're probably not recognisable enough to sell to an unfamiliar audience... I look forward to seeing what Gotham will do with them, though.

 Mr Morden wrote:
I was kinda Hoping Harley and the Joker would be returning to Gotham after SS

I think it's almost impossible for Joker and Harley not to make an appearance in the Batman film. We should see them before we see third-tier villains like Freeze, at least if we're talking more than a cameo. I suspect Deathstroke got in to give us some great fight sequences and a physical match for Batman that the traditional rogue's gallery doesn't provide.

 Mr Morden wrote:
Nolan's Ra's Al Ghul seemed to be beyond stupid - not sure how is in the comics but he made zero sense other than to give Batman super ninja training and was a major weak spot in the first Batman film.

The Scarecrow on the other hand was great - and then sadly thrown away.

A good Poison Ivy would be fun, Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman was a high spot in a weak 2nd film by Tim Burton.

I was kinda Hoping Harley and the Joker would be returning to Gotham after SS

Sirens as the main villains could be interesting and different, though I doubt it could be made.

In new Batman news, Snyder released this from Justice League earlier. Dead cool costume there, very Arkham Knight-y and looking mean! Not sure about the goggles though...

Snyder said in the reveal of the suit that the goggles are "for a specific foe" and the scenes with that foe.

Interesting. So are they for vision enhancement or vision protection? Lots of possibilities there.

With this and the Deathstroke reveal, it seems like the JL movie will have at least a couple mid-level villains between Steppenwolf and the Parademons.

 gorgon wrote:
Interesting. So are they for vision enhancement or vision protection? Lots of possibilities there.

With this and the Deathstroke reveal, it seems like the JL movie will have at least a couple mid-level villains between Steppenwolf and the Parademons.

I'm thinking it might be none of the above, honestly...

The suit looks very similar to the Arkham series suits, and the place where Batfleck is at looks remarkably similar to that where Deathstroke's little "intro" was...

I'm kind of wondering if we might see Detective Mode

I read the wikipedia summary of that whole "less sympathetic Freeze" thing I think. And completely hated it.

Then again, I also completely hated the way they took Freeze in the "New Adventures of Batman and Robin" - Futurama Spiderhead Freeze that is irredeemably insane and hates everyone ever.

However, the Arkham game series and most especially the 'season of infamy' sidemission. - Add that to the "Batman The Animated Series' Freeze and that's my own personal Headcanon for that characters story.


More on topic though, haven't a lot of rumours specifically said that the film will be based around the Arkham Asylum location to some extent, though not saying it's specifically based on either the comics or games.

I also thought it was confirmed that we would be seeing a LOT of villains in the film, even if they're just cameos.

Insane spider head Freeze was redeemed in Batman Beyond though.

I've got to say the only Batman Beyond I saw was Return of The Joker and the Talia al Ghul episode and I hated what was done with the characters in both of those.

And we have a title now: The Batman.
http://variety.com/2016/film/news/ben-affleck-reveals-title-of-new-batman-film-the-batman-1201877858/

Seems like the best choice, it prevents any confusion with The Dark Knight stuff or the 80s/90s ones, and there's something pleasantly comic booky about it, I think.

 Paradigm wrote:
And we have a title now: The Batman.
http://variety.com/2016/film/news/ben-affleck-reveals-title-of-new-batman-film-the-batman-1201877858/

Seems like the best choice, it prevents any confusion with The Dark Knight stuff or the 80s/90s ones, and there's something pleasantly comic booky about it, I think.

It makes me think of the one animated cartoon called The Batman where he is never referred to as simply Batman, but always The Batman.

 AduroT wrote:
It makes me think of the one animated cartoon called The Batman where he is never referred to as simply Batman, but always The Batman.

That was also true of the Nolan films, I believe.

 Compel wrote:
I read the wikipedia summary of that whole "less sympathetic Freeze" thing I think. And completely hated it.

You aren't alone. Many hated it.