Manganiello Details Affleck’s Unmade Batman Film

Joe Manganiello’s memoir describes a planned Ben Affleck Batman film in which Deathstroke would wage a personal campaign against Batman, killing Commissioner Jim Gordon, taking Alfred hostage and infiltrating the Batcave. The film was never made, so the plot remains Manganiello’s account of a proposed story rather than events depicted on screen. In Bloodlines, Manganiello says Deathstroke, also known as Slade Wilson, would have become the film’s central villain after believing Batman had killed his son. He characterized the concept as a superhero version of David Fincher’s The Game, a thriller in which a man’s life is systematically disrupted. The planned revenge would have targeted people and places close to Bruce Wayne. Manganiello says Deathstroke would kill Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon, played in earlier DC films by J.K. Simmons, and take Alfred Pennyworth, played by Jeremy Irons, hostage. He would also break into the Batcave. Manganiello’s account includes a major fight about halfway through the story. Deathstroke would nearly kill Batman and Batgirl, but both would escape. The story would then build toward a one-on-one confrontation between Deathstroke and...