DC Studios is going all in on its villains with Joker: Folie à Deux hitting theaters and The Penguin on HBO. Now it looks like James Gunn and Peter Safran’s next gamble is to pair Bane and Deathstroke up in a movie. Gunn is currently working on his new DCU, which so far has a wide selection of different projects from the animated series Creature Commandos debuting later this year, and both Superman and Peacemaker Season 2 set for release in 2025. These will subsequently be joined by Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow in 2026 with a Lanterns series in the same year. Now, it looks like another project will be entering development, putting the spotlight on two iconic DC villains.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, DC Studios and Warner Bros. are developing a movie featuring Bane and Deathstroke. Both villains are commonly associated with Batman, although Deathstroke is largely considered a Green Arrow and Teen Titans villain as well. Matthew Orton, who wrote the script for Marvel Studios’ upcoming Captain America: Brave New World, is working on the script with the film being developed by James Gunn and Peter Safran for DC Studios, but it is unclear where it will fit in the studio’s plans.

Bane and Deathstroke History at the Movies

Both Bane and Deathstroke are iconic DC villains. Bane debuted in 1993 and was created by writer Chuck Dixon and artist Graham Nolan. He is most famous for breaking Batman’s back in the iconic “Knightfall” storyline, which inspired Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, which saw Tom Hardy put in a performance that has gone on to define the character. Deathstroke was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez in The New Teen Titans #2 in December 1980. The character was mainly thought of as a Teen Titans villain and also a Green Arrow villain, hence why the character was featured as Slade on the animated series Teen Titans and played by Manu Bennett on Arrow and Esai Morales on Titans.

Starting in the 2010s, around the time of DC’s New 52, the company started positioning Deathstroke as a Batman villain by featuring him in the video game Batman: Arkham Origins, and then casting Joe Manganiello as the character in Ben Affleck’s planned solo The Batman movie, first teasing him at the end of Justice League. Manganiello also wanted to do a solo Deathstroke origin movie from The Raid director Garreth Evans, but the project was scrapped. Elements of that film could be incorporated into this Bane/Deathstroke film, but there is no word on whether Manganiello will be asked to reprise his role or if the part will be recast.

Pairing Deathstroke and Bane together in a solo film might tie into James Gunn’s plans for Brave and the Bold, featuring Batman training his son Damian Wayne to be the new Robin. Damian Wayne’s mother is Talia Al Ghul, daughter of League of Assassin’s Head Ra’s Al Ghul, and both Deathstroke and Bane have connections to the organization in the comics. The DCU is also working on a Teen Titans movie in which Deathstroke could appear. James Gunn has previously teased a future for Deathstroke in the DCU, and although there is still a chance that the project could be an “Elseworlds” movie, it seems most likely that Bane and Deathstroke could be facing off with the yet-to-be-cast Batman sometime in the future. Wherever this new film fits into the bigger picture, DC Studios will be hoping for a villain-centric movie that is more Joker and less Morbius.