Dick Grayson will face off against his arch nemesis when DC Universe’s Titans returns for its second season. Esai Morales, best known for playing NYPD Blue‘s Lt. Tony Rodriguez, is stepping into the role of Slade Wilson (aka Deathstroke), our sister site Deadline reports.
According to the official character description, “Slade Wilson is known for being DC’s deadliest assassin. While serving his country, Slade became an elite soldier before government testing enhanced his physiology to near superhuman levels, putting him on a path of darkness and revenge. To his family, Slade is a father and husband, but to the rest of the world, he is feared by many as the infamous Deathstroke; selling his services to the highest bidder as the ruthless assassin that never gives up and never misses.”
If this character sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because he’s popped up in a handful of DC movies and TV shows in recent years. Among his many appearances, we’ve seen Slade portrayed by Antonio Sabato Jr. (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman), Michael Hogan (Smallville), Manu Bennett (Arrow) and Joe Manganiello (Justice League). On the animated side, Slade has been voiced by Ron Perlman (Teen Titans), Wentworth Miller (Young Justice) and Will Arnett (Teen Titans Go! to the Movies).
Titans stars Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson/Robin, Anna Diop as Kory Anders/Starfire, Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth/Raven and Ryan Potter as Gar Logan/Beast Boy. The show’s second season — which has yet to announce a premiere date — will also add Conner Kent/Superboy into the mix.
Your thoughts on the Titans going toe-to-toe with Deathstroke? Drop ’em in a comment below.
Loved him as a villain on how to get away with murder. No doubt he can rock this one too.
Deathstroke was also voiced by Miguel Ferrer in “Teen Titans: The Judas Contract”.
Makes sense. Once they’ve dealt with Trigon, Deathstroke is the next obvious Big Bad to introduce. After that, maybe a Tamaranean invasion.
I have yet to see S1, but S2 us sounding great.
I hope Trigon enables S2 to be a soft reboot of the show.
This will be good. Manu Bennett will always be Deathstroke to me.
Honestly was hoping it would be Manu Bennett, and that Titans would fall somewhere in the Berlanti multiverse.
Well Mark Pedowitz (the president of The CW) said in an interview at the TCA’s a couple months ago that shows like Doom Patrol and Titans are in there own universe and they won’t crossover with the DC shows on The CW cause they’re completely different in tone and they’re on a streaming service so they can’t use Manu Bennett to play the same character in a different universe that follows its own continuity. And the reason why is because he was asked if those shows were going to be part of Crisis On Infinite Earths and he said no cause they’re off limits cause they want shows that air on The CW to be part of the Crisis crossover so we could see shows like Charmed, Legacies (the whole Vampire Diaries Universe for that matter), Riverdale (plus Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Supernatural take their places which i know would kinda suck but those shows are more popular than the DC Universe shows cause those 2 shows are brand new its more of a “what’s good for business” strategy and that’s what they might be planning.
I like Esai Morales, but he’s 56. Isn’t he a bit old for the role?
Deathstroke is usually portrayed as a grey-haired veteran, so looking the part isn’t an issue. As for the physicality, well, I suppose that’s what good costumes and stunt doubles are for…
Nope, Deathstroke is quite old. Esai Morales doesn’t quite have the physicality for this, but he’s a GREAT actor.
He’s not too old Deathstroke is usually portrayed as a middle aged man and he’s gonna be wearing a mask at least 60 percent of the time anyways.
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