The last few months have seen a ton of DC movie developments; some of them have been good, and some of them have been bad. However, one of the most exciting announcements of the last year came with the revelation that Joe Manganiello will portray Slade Wilson a.k.a Deathstroke in the upcoming Batman solo movie. The first footage of the character promised a seriously badass appearance, and the actor has officially released a new (heavily armored) picture of his take on the villain. Check out the picture below.

Thanks to @Jeran_art for this awesome shot of me from the armor screen test.#DEATHSTROKE pic.twitter.com/1lEYLQ6vrc

— Joe Manganiello (@JoeManganiello) January 27, 2017

As a die-hard fan of the DC mythos, I cannot even begin to describe my elation at seeing this photo. Joe Manganiello tweeted out a picture of his version of Deathstroke, and it has everything that you could want from a silver screen version of the villain. The costume features a dark black color scheme that contrasts nicely with the orange tint, and the sword on the villain's back looks like some heavy hardware. Because Joe Manganiello is a six foot five inch beast of a man, we have a distinct feeling that Slade Wilson is going to have some serious power over Ben Affleck's Dark Knight.

It's worth acknowledging that this isn't footage from the Batman solo movie, as the film has not even started production yet. This is simply a shot from a screen test that Joe Manganiello participated in. That said, it still serves as a reliable indication that the movie is making gradual progress, and that's all we want at this point. After all of the delays and setbacks that we have seen in the DCEU so far, we just want some solid confirmation that progress is being made.

I might be reaching with this assumption, but a closer look at the details in this picture seems to shed light onto the exact nature of the story in the upcoming solo Batman movie. The fact that Deathstroke appears to be standing in a snow-covered Gotham City seemingly indicates the distinct possibility that the film could take place during the winter months. If this truly is the case, then it remains entirely plausible that Ben Affleck's Batman movie could draw liberal inspiration from Arkham Origins -- a criminally underrated game that took place on Christmas Eve.

If that is true, then we may see this badass fight sequence between The Dark Knight and The Terminator take place.


We will make sure to keep you up to date with any and all relevant details related to Ben Affleck's solo movie as they become available to us. The film doesn't currently have a set release date, but I think it's officially safe to say that the wait has become excruciating.