Batman fans rejoice, because it looks like the next big villain in the franchise is someone we haven’t seen before. His name is Deathstroke the Terminator, and with a name like “Deathstroke the Terminator” you know he has to be a badass. Because if he wasn’t, he’d have had the crap kicked out of him for sporting such a silly name.
And sure enough, the DC supervillain Deathstroke has built up such a killer reputation since his first appearance in 1980 that he now ranks among the most formidable bad guys in comic book history. The unstoppable assassin named Slade Wilson is such a tough guy that the Marvel Comics character Deadpool, the one everybody knows and loves nowadays, was originally a Deathstroke knock-off. (Deathstroke is Slade Wilson, Deadpool is Wade Wilson; they weren’t very subtle about it.)
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) August 29, 2016
The news broke gradually this morning, when Ben Affleck – not just the new Batman, but also the director and co-writer of the upcoming Batman solo movie – revealed footage of Deathstroke in action on the Justice League set.
That, in and of itself, was already news: Deathstroke hadn’t been announced as a player in Zack Snyder’s Justice League yet, and we still don’t even know who is playing the character. The Wrap then followed this revelation with the news that, as of this point in development, Deathstroke is going to be the primary antagonist in the next Batman solo movie.
DC Comics
This is an interesting development for a variety of reasons, including the fact that – traditionally, at any rate – Deathstroke isn’t a so-called “Batman villain.” In the comics, the deadly assassin has spent more time menacing the Teen Titans than he ever spent tussling with the caped crusader. And the first live-action incarnation of Deathstroke, played by Manu Bennett (The Shannara Chronicles), was the “big bad” on the CW superhero show Arrow during the program’s second season.
But it’s also worth pointing out that The Wrap is touting Deathstroke as the next Batman movie’s “main” villain. Unlike previous cinematic incarnations of the superhero, this new Batman exists in a world fully populated with supervillains, as we saw in this summer’s Suicide Squad. So although Deathstroke may be the bane of Batman’s existence in the new movie, it’s entirely possible we could still get appearances from other Batman bad guys like Penguin, Catwoman or even Bane for all we know.
Warner Bros. has yet to confirm or deny this news. We will let you know if any further developments develop.
The 15 Best Supervillains Who Haven’t Been in a Movie Yet:
Photo: CW / Warner Bros.
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved, Rapid Reviews and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The Best Supervillains Who Haven't Been In A Movie Yet
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Annihilus
This old Fantastic Four villain reinvented himself in 2006 when he damn near conquered the universe, and inadvertently brought the all-new, all-different Guardians of the Galaxy (a.k.a. the version everyone currently knows and loves) together in the first place. He's big, he's powerful, he looks scary as hell, he totally deserves a badass name like "Annihilus."
Photo: Marvel
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Anti Monitor
The all-powerful Anti-Monitor (whose name only makes sense with a LOT of context) destroyed an almost infinite number of universes, forcing the entire DC comic book line to reboot itself in the 1980s. Bad guys don't get much badder than this.
Photo: DC
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Bizarro
In some stories Bizarro is a failed clone of Superman, in others he's from a "bizarro" planet in which everything is the opposite of Earth. Either way, he's just as powerful as the Man of Steel and dangerously deranged, making him one of Superman's most popular villains for many years.
Photo: DC
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Brainiac
Another one of Superman's most popular bad guys, Brainiac is an alien android (in some versions, just an alien) obsessed with collecting intelligence from the around the universe. Some storylines claim he is directly responsible for the destruction of Krypton, others depict him as a destructive force that eliminates whole planets after he's learned everything about them.
Photo: DC
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Cassandra Nova
Cassandra Nova is Charles Xavier's twin sister (sort of), who escaped from the womb and became the mirror image of everything he stood for. Professor X tried to bring about a new age of peace between mankind and mutants. Cassandra Nova was responsible for a genocide that left 16 million mutants dead.
Photo: Marvel
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Clayface
There aren't many popular Batman villains who haven't shown up in theaters yet, but Clayface is easily the most prominent. An actor who fell victim to a toxic substance that melted him into clay, but gave him the ability to shapeshift into different people and deadly objects, Clayface is one of Caped Crusader's most powerful foes.
Photo: DC
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Kang the Conqueror
Kang the Conqueror is a little bit complicated, but time travel will do that to you. Basically he's a descendant of Reed Richards from the future, who became a time-hopping despot, who also became a more wizened villain named Immortus later in life, but thanks to time travel they sometimes work together. He's an ambitious villain, but the possibilities are inherently endless.
Photo: Marvel
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Kraven the Hunter
A lot of Spider-Man villains have animal powers (so does Spider-Man, obviously), so a big game hunter was always a natural fit. Kraven the Hunter may seem like a gimmick villain but his obsessive need to prove his superiority to Spider-Man eventually led to one of the hero's best and darkest storylines, Kraven's Last Hunt.
Photo: Marvel
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Metallo
Warner Bros.' obsession with Lex Luthor and General Zod has left a lot of Superman's best villains on the cutting room floor. Here's another one: Metallo, a criminal trapped inside a powerful metal body, whose ability to rebuild himself - and his kryptonite battery core - has made him one of the Man of Steel's most formidable foes.
Photo: DC
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M.O.D.O.K.
He's a big head with little arms and legs, and he's "Designed Only for Killing." This is M.O.D.O.K., one of Captain America's strangest and most unforgettable villains, who uses his mental powers to lead an army of evil super scientists.
Photo: Marvel
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Mr. Mxyzptlk
This hard-to-pronounce villain (here goes: 'Mix-YEZ-pit-lick") is an all-powerful prankster deity from Dimension X, who routinely pops into Superman's life to stir up mischief. But Mr. Mxyzptlk is more than a joke character, he's been the cause of major strife in the DC universe on multiple occasions and, in a classic story by Alan Moore, revealed himself to be one of Superman's most dangerous adversaries.
Photo: DC
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The Phalanx
One of the most fearsome alien races in all of comics, the Technarh are "techno-organic," alive but made of machinery, with the ability to transform themselves and infect other races. They formed The Phalanx and helped conquer the universe with Ultron as their leader, and proved themselves one of the most visually interesting and formidable threats in the Marvel universe.
Photo: Marvel
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Sinestro
Sinestro technically appeared in the live-action Green Lantern movie, but only as a hero, not as a villain. Once the most celebrated hero of the Green Lantern Corps, he eventually was revealed to be a corrupt influence, and went on to form his own army of Yellow Lanterns, who used their powers to instill fear across the galaxy.
Photo: DC
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The Skrulls
Another mighty alien race, The Skrulls are a species of shapeshifters who have repeatedly infiltrated the ranks of Marvel's heroes in an attempt to conquer our planet. In the epic crossover event Secret Invasion, they came shockingly close.
Photo: Marvel
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Thunderbolts
Nowadays the Thunderbolts are a group of supervillains employed by the government, not unlike the Suicide Squad. But when they first premiered they had one of the cleverest ideas in comic book history: they impersonated a new team of superheroes, and defeated their fair share of other supervillains, to earn the world's trust. Then, when the time was right, they revealed their secret identities and took over the planet! Lots of these villains deserve to be the bad guy in a superhero movie, but that's such a clever idea that the Thunderbolts probably deserve their own film.
Photo: Marvel
