American actor Joe Manganiello has revealed he almost played the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character Casey Jones in a movie for Paramount around 10 years ago.Manganiello’s announcement was in reply to Canadian screenwriter and director Jason Eisener, who also revealed on Twitter that he pitched a standalone Casey Jones movie to Paramount five years ago. Eisener, best known for directing movies like Hobo with a Shotgun and Kids vs. Aliens, uploaded the tone reel he used to pitch Paramount on the idea to Vimeo. Based on the gritty presentation of Eisener’s pitch made-up of clips from Warrior, You Were Never Really Here and the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, the director wanted to take his Casey Jones movie in a more serious direction.
Joe Manganiello as Casey Jones
“Five years ago I pitched a Casey Jones standalone film to Paramount with Shredder's daughter Karai as the heel,” Eisener tweeted. “The final act saw Casey team up with Raphael who was to look like he stepped out of the 1990 film.” In response, the Magic Mike actor wrote “About ten years ago, Paramount wanted to make something with me and I said I wanted to play Casey Jones… I would have done this in a heartbeat.” “That would of been amazing!” Eisener responded back.
Manganiello is no stranger to the comic book movie world. The actor played Flash Thompson in the 2002 Spider-Man movie by Sam Raimi. He was also cast as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke in 2016, intended to play the main antagonist in Ben Affleck’s Batman movie, which never came to be. While Manganiello was able to play Deathstroke in a post-credit scene for Justice League, appearing in both the 2017 theatrical version and the 2021 Zack Snyder redux, the assassin has not appeared in any DC superhero movie since.
Will Deathstroke Appear in the DCU?
The recent reshuffling of the DC Universe movies seemingly diminished the possibility of seeing Manganiello’s Deathstroke again. However, DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn vaguely hinted at Deathstroke’s possible return, tweeting "Could be..." back in December when answering a fan's question. Yet, if the character returns, he will not be a part of Matt Reeves' Batman movies, as they're considered separate from the main DC movie universe. Indeed, director Todd Phillips' upcoming sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, shares a similar classification, falling into the "Elseworlds" label of DC film franchises outside the main line. Whether the DCU has room for Joe Manganiello's version of Deathstroke remains to be seen.
Besides being a comic book actor, Manganiello is an enthusiast of Dungeons & Dragons. He is currently set to direct a documentary about the iconic tabletop role-playing game and even had a specially-made gaming table delivered to him for his D&D room.
Source: Twitter, Vimeo