Joe Manganiello details canceled Ben Affleck's 'Batman' film, says 'it had dark story'

Ben Affleck was to reprises his role as Bruce Wayne in a solo Batman movie, which he would also have directed and co-written. But the actor stepped down from the project. The film would have had Joe Manganiello as the villain Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke. Now Manganiello revealed details about what a solo Batfleck film would have been.

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Joe Manganiello shares new details about Ben Affleck’s scrapped Batman movie

In a recent interview with Yahoo, Joe Manganiello opened up about the cancelled Batman film starring and directed by Ben Affleck. He said that it had similarities with David Fincher’s 1997 cult favourite The Game. The actor mentioned that it was a “really dark story” in which Deathstroke was like a shark or a horror movie villain that was dismantling Bruce Wayne’s life from inside out. He stated that it was this systemic thing and he killed everyone close to Bruce and destroyed his life to try and make him suffer because he felt that the billionaire was responsible for something that happened to him.

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Joe Manganiello said that Ben Affleck's Batman had a “really cool, really dark and really hard,” storyline. He admitted that he was very excited about the movie. 

The actor explained that the Justice League original version would have set his character up for Ben Affleck's Batman movie. However, the dialogues in the theatrical version were changed when Affleck left the solo project and Joss Whedon replaced Snyder.

Nonetheless, Joe Manganiello will appear in the upcoming Zack Snyder's Justice League. It is speculated that he could team up with Ben Affleck as Batman for a greater cause than their rivalry. The project is set to arrive on HBO Max in early or mid-2021. 

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As Ben Affleck exited the Batman movie, Matt Reeves was brought on board as the director. Then, Robert Pattinson was cast as Bruce Wayne. Upcoming The Batman is said to be a standalone project in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe). It will also feature Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, Peter Sarsgaard, John Turturo, Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan, Jayme Lawson, and Andy Serkis. On the other hand, Affleck will portray his version of Batman in The Flash movie which also has Michael Keaton essaying the cape crusader.