Manganiello almost died before Affleck's Batman

Joe Manganiello, the Justice League’s Deathstroke, was getting out of a hospital bed when Ben Affleck offered him the role of the villain in Batman’s solo film. He tells everything in Bloodlines, a memoir that comes out in the United States on October 13th. The Hollywood Reporter published an excerpt this Thursday, 8th, with a part of the audiobook in his voice. And it’s strong.

For those who fell by parachute: Manganiello is the werewolf Alcide from True Blood and Big Dick Richie from Magic Mike, and according to THR he came very close to being Superman. In 2016, Affleck was going to write, direct and star in a Batman of his own, with Deathstroke as his enemy. We will tell this story through the words of those who lived it, in order.

The body shut down

In April 2016, Manganiello collapsed in pain on the set of Series Six in Wilmington, North Carolina. Production stopped and he left the cast due to a health problem, as Deadline reported on the 14th. It was an autoimmune disease that doctors couldn’t explain. At the hospital, he went from 107 to 80 kilos. Then came the dawn he calls the Night in Hell, and emergency surgery the next morning.

My entire large intestine had turned to pus and was about to explode. Had they not cut me open that morning, it would have ruptured, and I would have died immediately of sepsis.

Joe Manganiello, in Bloodlines, excerpt published by The Hollywood Reporter on 10/08/2026

The person who authorized the removal of the intestine was his wife at the time, actress Sofía Vergara. He came out of surgery with an ostomy bag stuck to his stomach, without knowing for how long.

The phone rings

Still trying to get off heavy medication, Manganiello received a call from his agent: Affleck wanted to talk about a role in the new Batman. He went, held back the pain with adrenaline, didn’t say anything about the illness and walked out as Deathstroke. At home, the reaction was not what he expected.

“I just got offered the biggest role of my life,” I said. “Are you insane?” she shouted at me. “You can’t do this movie!”

Joe Manganiello, in Bloodlines, about his conversation with Sofía Vergara, excerpt in The Hollywood Reporter, 10/08/2026

And he himself writes that she was not entirely wrong. But for him, Batman wasn’t just a job.

It was exactly the carrot that I needed to see dangling in front of me, the one that was going to get me out of this nightmare that my life had turned into.

Joe Manganiello, in Bloodlines, excerpt in The Hollywood Reporter, 10/08/2026

London, with the hidden bag

The armor test was in London. On the flight to Heathrow, the bag leaked. He cleaned everything himself in the plane’s bathroom, in the middle of the night, changed his clothes and looked at himself in the mirror.

You’re one tough son of a bitch. You’re a badass. I love you.

Joe Manganiello, in Bloodlines, excerpt in The Hollywood Reporter, 10/08/2026

The day before he stopped eating in the late afternoon, about 18 hours before the test, because DC’s clothes have three or four layers and, with all that pressure, his water could break. When it was time to put on the first layer, he found a way for the team to leave the room, so no one could see the scars. It worked out. Then they warned that a full body scan was still needed, with 256 cameras, and handed over a pair of tiny blue underwear, because the camera doesn’t read black. The THR segment ends there, with him panicking. The rest is for the book.

The movie he read

His scene was recorded that same year, to enter the end of the League and introduce the Batman villain. On August 29, 2016, Affleck released a Deathstroke test video on Twitter, without saying who was in the armor, and on September 8, DC confirmed his name to the Wall Street Journal. In 2021, Manganiello said that he read a good part of the Batman script while recording the League.

The Batman movie would be kind of similar to, you know, imagine if David Fincher’s The Game were real. He systematically dismantles Bruce’s life and starts killing the people in it.

Joe Manganiello on ComicBook Nation, ComicBook.com podcast, 03/24/2021, at 13:01

In the same conversation he said the rest: Deathstroke wrecked Bruce’s finances, Batgirl joined the fight, and Batman was truly scared, because he had found someone capable of beating him. A horror movie villain, in his words, like a shark.

The Batman that never got off the ground

On January 30, 2017, Affleck left the direction and continued as Batman.

It’s become clear that I can’t do both jobs at the level they require.

Ben Affleck, in a statement to Variety, 01/30/2017

Years later, he told the New York Times what he weighed. It was the same time, 2015 and 2016, and he was also struggling with drinking.

I showed the Batman script to someone. She said: I think the script is good. I also think you’ll drink yourself to death if you go through what you just went through again.

Ben Affleck to the New York Times, reproduced by Collider, 02/18/2020

In January 2019, he left the role for good. Think about it: two guys in the same movie, each fighting for his own life. Affleck chose his. For us, this is courage. And today he’s there, directing again, as we said in Affleck directs Ray Fisher in Animals.

Snyder returns the scene

But the Deathstroke scene didn’t premiere the way it was shot. In the 2017 Justice League, it was changed, and Manganiello only found out close to the debut.

The scene you see in the Snyder Cut is the real scene that we recorded. When Batman was cancelled, without me knowing, they went there, put Jesse in a fake bald head, filmed him up close and changed all the dialogue to announce a Justice League Part Two that I didn’t even know existed.

Joe Manganiello at ComicBook Nation, 03/24/2021, at 9:17

In 2021, Zack Snyder’s League returned the original scene. And Snyder even called Manganiello to put on the armor again, now in Knightmare.

I want to give a huge shout out to Zack Snyder for including me in the Justice League this time.

Joe Manganiello at ComicBook Nation, 03/24/2021, at 6:02

Soon after, he gave credit where it’s due: Snyder only had this chance to return because of the fans.

The role that saved the actor

Affleck’s Batman was never filmed. But, reading Manganiello, you can understand that he fulfilled a function that no film fulfills: he put an 80-kilo man, with a bag on his body, on his feet again. Today, according to People, he has already reconnected his intestine and lives without symptoms.

The role was my destiny.

Joe Manganiello, in Bloodlines, excerpt in The Hollywood Reporter, 10/08/2026

This destiny could well have a second chapter. Anyone who follows the SnyderVerse knows that a good story, in this universe, never dies. She waits.