A few days ago, we reported on a potential roster leak for Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. Today one of those character names was directly confirmed.
As was the case back then, our source is Miller Ross, a media writer for multiple publications, including Eurogamer. This is actually a follow up to that earlier roster leak, as he is now directly naming one of those future characters.
And let’s get straight to it; Miller just straight up confirmed Deathstroke will be a playable character.
We don’t know the specifics for this for now, such as his role in the story. Was he caught and added to the squad, or was this direct work for hire by Amanda Waller, or someone else, like Luthor?
Deathstroke, or as he was originally known, Deathstroke the Terminator, was created by Marv Wolfman as a major antagonist for the Teen Titans. First appearing in 1980, Deathstroke seemingly saw his profile dip as DC had to drop the Terminator part of his name to avoid confusion or legal action related to James Cameron’s The Terminator. Deathstroke actually precedes Cameron’s film by four years earlier, but this is likely DC just being uninterested in any legal battles.
Deathstroke may have been popular in the comics in the 1980s, but he didn’t really become well known to fans until the Teen Titans cartoon originally broadcast in Cartoon Network in 2003. He made his mark as an adult willing to get it dirty with a bunch of teenagers for money, and many of his storylines in the comics were reexamined in the show.
Deathstroke also could have been in the Suicide Squad movie, at least the second one. He appears as a cameo in the 2017 Justice League movie, played by Joe Manganiello, but is ultimately unused in that film series. As reported by CBR, James Gunn corroborated that he originally planned to have Deathstroke head the squad, but that ultimately didn’t pan out, in favor of his rival/student Deadshot.
And of course, in the video games, Deathstroke was most visible in the first Injustice fighting game, some of the Batman: Arkham games, and in the Lego Batman games. This won’t be the first time Slade Wilson will be playable in a video game, but it would be the first time you could play him using his full arsenal of weapons and skills.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is releasing on February 2, 2024 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows, via Steam and Epic Game Store.