Here’s some surprising news: Bane and Deathstroke are getting a movie in the DCU. Not two separate movies. One movie, with Bane and Deathstroke in it… Two characters I honestly cannot remember meeting or having a conversation or anything in common in the DC Comics.
The news comes via THR, who reveal that Step Brothers 2: Bane and Deathstroke (not the name of the movie) is being developed based on a script by Matthew Orton. Orton wrote on Marvel’s Moon Knight, and created the series Devil’s Peak, which I have just discovered was a TV series that premiered last year. He also is one of three credited writers on the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World.
There’s no director attached, and while Tom Hardy played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, and Joe Manganiello cameoed as Deathstroke in Justice League, they also are not attached to the project. But that makes sense because Bane and Deathstroke aren’t usually attached in the comics, either.
In the books, Bane uses a chemical called Venom to make him super strong and is best known for breaking Batman’s back. Deathstroke is an incredibly adept assassin and has often tussled with the Teen Titans in particular. However, various TV shows and video games have tried to pivot Deathstroke to becoming a Batman adversary because a grown man being obsessed with teenagers is weird.
So will this be a Batman movie without Batman? And further, will this exist in the DCU — the new universe being created by James Gunn and Peter Safran — the Batman Epic Crime Saga — the universe of The Batman and The Penguin — or something entirely unrelated? Also, what in the world can Bane and Deathstroke have to talk about? Hating Batman, I guess?
Speaking of which, recent reports have indicated the Mile Flanagan written Clayface movie might be back on the table. And Matt Reeves may be developing a Mr. Freeze movie. So is there a whole host of Gotham City rogues movies in the works?
More on this as it develops.