These past few weeks have been something of a [in Ron Burgundy voice] rollercoaster of emotion for Zack Snyder fans. On the one hand, they finally got the long awaited Snyder Cut, which turned out to be quite awesome, but on the other hand, they’ve had to imagine what could have been had Warner Bros. continued with Snyder’s DC universe and not changed course with 2017’s Justice League. Case in point: in a recent interview, Joe Manganiello, who was slated to star as Deathstroke in Ben Affleck’s Batman film, revealed that none other than Batgirl figured into Affleck’s take on the Dark Knight.
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“There was like a big huge showdown, I think between Batgirl… Batgirl jumps in to try and help Bruce because Deathstroke is so fast,” Manganiello told the Phase Zero podcast.“He can anticipate Bruce’s movements,” so much so that Batman is actually afraid of Slade Wilson because “he met someone who can take him. That leads to this big climactic battle through the streets of Gotham in the end. It’s like a real-life psychological thriller with Deathstroke. He was like a horror movie, like a shark, kind of like Jaws.”
These kind of reports are fun to listen to, but also a bit wistful especially after WarnerMedia CEO Ann Sarnoff effectively stated the studio has no plans to continue Snyder’s vision, but instead will continue the course set fourth by the theatrical cut of Justice League as well as Aquaman, Shazam! and Wonder Woman 1984 — read: lighter, more family-friendly adventures.
So, in the end, while we can all still enjoy Snyder’s trilogy — Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder’s Justice League — the herculean task it took to get the director’s completed vision remains bittersweet.
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Zack Snyder’s Justice League is currently available on HBO Max.
