Is Greg Mottola Directing DCU’s Deathstroke & Bane Team-Up?

[ShawnDK]

In "take it with a grain of salt" news, Deadline is reporting that Greg Mottola, who has previously directed episodes of Peacemaker, is a front-runner to direct the untitled Deathstroke and Bane feature. The film remains in very early development, though word of this project first began in 2024. The initial screenplay reportedly was penned by Matthew Orton, who wrote for the Disney+ Moon Knight series.

The villain team-up would put Bane back on the big screen for his first appearance since he was played by Tom Hardy in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. Deathstroke was previously played by Esai Morales in the Titans live-action TV series, with Joe Manganiello appearing as him in Zack Snyder’s Justice League around the same period.

Mottola, EP and director on new Peacock series The Miniature Wife, is perhaps best known for directing the hit buddy comedy Superbad.

[elongatedman]

I hope this movie is a  surprise secret six movie  

[Lord_Scareglow]

Why is it Gunn's whole deal, to go right in during the early phase of shaping this Cinematic Universe with the secondary to c tier characters? Villains for that matter more importantly, the Villains thing doesn't go so well generally, why are you giving people a Deathstroke & Bane movie so early? like..Superman sure good choice to open with, Supergirl...okay...Clayface..whoa dude, might as well announce a movie about Color Kid & Codpiece, seems par for the course. 

[Jscott991]

11 minutes ago, Lord_Scareglow said:

Why is it Gunn's whole deal, to go right in during the early phase of shaping this Cinematic Universe with the secondary to c tier characters? Villains for that matter more importantly, the Villains thing doesn't go so well generally, why are you giving people a Deathstroke & Bane movie so early? like..Superman sure good choice to open with, Supergirl...okay...Clayface..whoa dude, might as well announce a movie about Color Kid & Codpiece, seems par for the course. 

It's not really all Gunn's fault.  When he joined, it wasn't clear DC was going to give him Batman and Wonder Woman for instance.  They are still doing a silly Pattinson movie that isn't going to fit in Gunn's universe.  He is moving forward with Wonder Woman.  These side projects are a result of all the stuff that was originally supposed to fill out content on WB's streaming service.  Who knows what will happen now?  Personally, I think Gunn is hemorrhaging money and is likely to be relieved, but maybe Supergirl will do better than anticipated. 

[MrWolf12000]

On 5/9/2026 at 3:45 PM, Lord_Scareglow said:

Why is it Gunn's whole deal, to go right in during the early phase of shaping this Cinematic Universe with the secondary to c tier characters? Villains for that matter more importantly, the Villains thing doesn't go so well generally, why are you giving people a Deathstroke & Bane movie so early? like..Superman sure good choice to open with, Supergirl...okay...Clayface..whoa dude, might as well announce a movie about Color Kid & Codpiece, seems par for the course. 

I still lament that we never got a Batfleck vs Deathstroke movie, so I am good with that coming early. Maybe Bane will be done properly for once to boot.

Similiarly the third film under Snyder was Suicide Squad. Harley and Joker aside that was rife with B and C tier characters so seems par for the course to me. Clayface I agree, WTAF. Seems like this was crowbarred in here and I dont get it. Not gonna lie I am excited for Swamp Thing if that is still in the pipeline. 

WB is such a clusterF right now I dont think we should be surprised by any weird decisions

Long as all these are good or at least entertaining, right?

 

On 5/9/2026 at 3:56 PM, Jscott991 said:

It's not really all Gunn's fault.  When he joined, it wasn't clear DC was going to give him Batman and Wonder Woman for instance.  They are still doing a silly Pattinson movie that isn't going to fit in Gunn's universe.  He is moving forward with Wonder Woman.  These side projects are a result of all the stuff that was originally supposed to fill out content on WB's streaming service.  Who knows what will happen now?  Personally, I think Gunn is hemorrhaging money and is likely to be relieved, but maybe Supergirl will do better than anticipated. 

 

What gives you the impression Gunn's DC is hemorrhaging money? Im actually asking, and not trying to be combative. I dont pay a lot of attention to hollywood aside from whats coming out and did it do well but we are one movie into this venture and that one was at least profitable. Clayface seemed to come out of nowhere and apparently has a low budget, not sure if they would hold that against him. If Supergirl bombs, yeah that will cost Gunn and WB big time, but that remains to be seen. 

WB lost their arse on Justice League as well as the sequels to Joker, Shazam, Aquaman and Wonder Woman. And even more was lost on The Flash and Black Adam disasters. I say that to say I think they will at least let Gunn get through this first set of films.

I do agree that a sequel to The Batman (5 freaking years later no less) is an odd choice at this time. A large portion of the audience doesnt pay attention to what is tied together and presumes it is all in the same continutity. Shouldnt hurt the box office if people want to see it but the desire for a The Batman sequel certainly isnt what it was a few years ago.

 

[Jscott991]

30 minutes ago, MrWolf12000 said:

 

What gives you the impression Gunn's DC is hemorrhaging money? Im actually asking, and not trying to be combative. I dont pay a lot of attention to hollywood aside from whats coming out and did it do well but we are one movie into this venture and that one was at least profitable. Clayface seemed to come out of nowhere and apparently has a low budget, not sure if they would hold that against him. If Supergirl bombs, yeah that will cost Gunn and WB big time, but that remains to be seen. 

 

 

There is a lot of chatter right now that Gunn might not survive the merger and that his "power" is being refocused on just Superman movies.  And at the Senate Subcommittee hearing on the WB merger, Netflix's CEO revealed what insiders had been leaking: Superman underperformed. That's not a good sign.  This was in response to a series of questions by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).  

SARANDOS: “It is the industry standard for self-enforcement. However, routinely movies that underperform, the window moves a little bit… and Superman was a little shorter window, and Sinners, a little longer window, but they still could refer to it as a 45-day window.”

[MrWolf12000]

9 minutes ago, Jscott991 said:

There is a lot of chatter right now that Gunn might not survive the merger and that his "power" is being refocused on just Superman movies.  And at the Senate Subcommittee hearing on the WB merger, Netflix's CEO revealed what insiders had been leaking: Superman underperformed. That's not a good sign.  This was in response to a series of questions by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).  

 

Oh marvelous. These mergers always end up working out SO well, especially when WB is involved in one of them. I didnt think it was a shock that Superman underperformed, but it was still profitable all the same.

A shame, I was looking forward to seeing what we could get out of 5 or 6 Gunn helmed films. I will say that a lot of damage was done by the prior DCEU being a S__tshow, not to mention the oversaturation of the superhero film genre in general, but that is what that is. The contributing conditions dont change the outcome. Oh well. 

[Lord_Scareglow]

3 hours ago, MrWolf12000 said:

I still lament that we never got a Batfleck vs Deathstroke movie, so I am good with that coming early. Maybe Bane will be done properly for once to boot.

Similiarly the third film under Snyder was Suicide Squad. Harley and Joker aside that was rife with B and C tier characters so seems par for the course to me. Clayface I agree, WTAF. Seems like this was crowbarred in here and I dont get it. Not gonna lie I am excited for Swamp Thing if that is still in the pipeline. 

WB is such a clusterF right now I dont think we should be surprised by any weird decisions

Long as all these are good or at least entertaining, right?

Yes and I still wonder why Suicide Squad was plugged in so early into the schedule, of course Harley Quinn, which that should of just been a stupid Harley movie, Nobody cared about suicide squad, and it was horrid (even if it wasn't edited to oblivion) but of course it was following suit with the popularity of Guardians with the rag-tag, losers to winners story, suicide squad was hot dookie droppings, and even if it was done right, it was wrong for the time, See DC just never figured the movie thing out, no matter who is driving the car, like if Marvel showed you anything, it's all about putting the right characters in the spotlight and early, I mean I get it there are many doors closed, with licenses, etc but...Like so establish something before hand, just because you can make a movie, doesn't mean you have to. 

Like Clayface...nobody is going to care except for a select few, even if that movie is a Phoenix Joker surprise hit, still look what happened in the end to that "franchise" 

WB and it's partnership with DC is just a clusterscruggler as it always has been, no actual vision, speckles of vision, sorry but I lost faith In Gunn personally, I just think what he's already laying out is not it, and how he's making these movies are not it, Superman wasn't really very good, people are lying if they say, that was the Ideal Superman movie, no it hardly felt like Superman, and it established Superman as a strange character and non traditional, sure sure try something new, but new isn't always better... ask Coke.

DC has pumped out a mass amount of TV and Cinema over the years, probably more worse then good IMO, horrible campy messes for WB, and constant re-booting of franchises. They can't get it right, because they don't have the formula, and I don't think Gunn has what it takes to change that. 

anyways final comment is ....I do have hopes for a Swampthing movie, if anything....but not quite sure Gunn should do it, Let Steven Kostanski do it. 

[MrWolf12000]

2 hours ago, Lord_Scareglow said:

Yes and I still wonder why Suicide Squad was plugged in so early into the schedule, of course Harley Quinn, which that should of just been a stupid Harley movie, Nobody cared about suicide squad, and it was horrid (even if it wasn't edited to oblivion) but of course it was following suit with the popularity of Guardians with the rag-tag, losers to winners story, suicide squad was hot dookie droppings, and even if it was done right, it was wrong for the time, See DC just never figured the movie thing out, no matter who is driving the car, like if Marvel showed you anything, it's all about putting the right characters in the spotlight and early, I mean I get it there are many doors closed, with licenses, etc but...Like so establish something before hand, just because you can make a movie, doesn't mean you have to. 

Like Clayface...nobody is going to care except for a select few, even if that movie is a Phoenix Joker surprise hit, still look what happened in the end to that "franchise" 

WB and it's partnership with DC is just a clusterscruggler as it always has been, no actual vision, speckles of vision, sorry but I lost faith In Gunn personally, I just think what he's already laying out is not it, and how he's making these movies are not it, Superman wasn't really very good, people are lying if they say, that was the Ideal Superman movie, no it hardly felt like Superman, and it established Superman as a strange character and non traditional, sure sure try something new, but new isn't always better... ask Coke.

DC has pumped out a mass amount of TV and Cinema over the years, probably more worse then good IMO, horrible campy messes for WB, and constant re-booting of franchises. They can't get it right, because they don't have the formula, and I don't think Gunn has what it takes to change that. 

anyways final comment is ....I do have hopes for a Swampthing movie, if anything....but not quite sure Gunn should do it, Let Steven Kostanski do it. 

Fair points. You arent wrong, most of it is not good. From Superman 78 to now there have been films I enjoyed; but lots of dreck. I never really cared for... really any of the DC TV that wasnt animated. 

[Jscott991]

3 hours ago, MrWolf12000 said:

Fair points. You arent wrong, most of it is not good. From Superman 78 to now there have been films I enjoyed; but lots of dreck. I never really cared for... really any of the DC TV that wasnt animated. 

The MCU's success obscures that DC is who brought superhero movies into existence. Superman '78, Burton's two Batman films, and Batman Begins are all very good movies.  And many people like the Ledger Batman movie too.  DC just hasn't been able to get off the mat in the last 10 years or so.

[Lord_Scareglow]

18 hours ago, Jscott991 said:

The MCU's success obscures that DC is who brought superhero movies into existence. Superman '78, Burton's two Batman films, and Batman Begins are all very good movies.  And many people like the Ledger Batman movie too.  DC just hasn't been able to get off the mat in the last 10 years or so.

Obviously DC has had many incredible successes in the world of cinema, and did usher in the whole popularity of Super hero movies, with Marvel not even having a glimmer of hope in that era, suffering almost bankruptcy, but aside from a select bunch of DC films, the track record is rife with terrible misfires, more so then Marvel once Marvel created the MCU, with largely none of marvel's films doing poorly, In fact the top 7 highest grossing super hero movies ever made are all Marvel, with none of those 7 movies being bad, or disliked, DC only lands it's highest grossing film at slot 11 with Aquaman (which wasn't that good, I think people just wanted to oogle Jason), with no more positions until 14 with TDKR, with DC in total only having about 10 major super film successes and Marvel with over 32.

Says something? 

with that being said DC has had some amazing films, that tower over marvel films with critical acclaim and quality, but actually far far less, most Marvel films have been accliamed by fans, with some obvious stinkers..but however were still largely success at the box office.