Joe Manganiello to play Deathstroke against Ben Affleck in 'The Batman'

At the start of the week, the DC fan base woke up to pretty exciting news. It came straight from Ben Affleck, who tweeted a short and somewhat eerie clip of Deathstroke walking straight towards the camera.

The tweet was posted early in the morning of Tuesday and has since been retweeted more than 40,000 times. Some time after the video was posted, The Wrap confirmed that Deathstroke would be the main villain in Affleck’s solo “Batman” movie. Though no official word has come from DC, the publication claims that its source is close to the project.

Earlier this year, it was already rumoured that Deathstroke, also known as Slade Wilson and Deathstroke the Terminator, would take part in a DC universe outside of “Arrow.” This happened when “Arrow” creator Marc Guggenheim was questioned whether or not the popular antagonist was making a return to the small screen. “The character of Slade Wilson is currently tied up in another DC project,” Guggenheim answered.

Taking Affleck’s Twitter post as confirmation, fans have expressed their delight that Deathstroke will play villain in the upcoming DC Film, “The Batman.”

However, Forbes points out that there has been no confirmation about whether or not Deathstroke will appear in “The Batman” or “Justice League.” But either way, the DC universe is about to receive a very notable new character. And the frontrunner to play the role, as the publication claims, is Joe Manganiello.

Reportedly, the “Magic Mike” actor hopped on a plane to the UK, where “Justice League” is currently filming. Moreover, previous rumours circled heavily on the actor playing Deathstroke in “Suicide Squad.” At that point, Manganiello claimed that he was testing for a totally different role.

Evidently, Manganiello did not make it onto “Suicide Squad” for any role. Although theoretically, it is possible that he initially tested out for the role of Deadshot, before it was agreed he would be better as a different assassin.

At this point, there has been no official announcement on the release date of "The Batman."