Bane and Deathstroke’s Film Can Redeem One of DC’s Biggest Villains

DC Studios announced an initial slate of projects back in February 2023 that gave fans an idea of what they can expect from the upcoming DCU, which will reboot the franchise. Like the MCU, the DCU will tell a long-form story across multiple mediums. DC’s Chapter I: Gods and Monsters will begin with an animated Creature Commandos series, but Superman will truly kick off the new era. The DCU will also introduce plenty of other well-known characters, and word on more projects has emerged since DC Studios’ slate reveal. The latest project will bring together two notable Batman villains in a film currently being written by Matthew Orton, who worked on Captain America: New World Order.

Bane and Deathstroke are two Batman villains who have had plenty of previous live-action appearances. Bane first appeared in the infamous Batman & Robin before Christopher Nolan transformed Tom Hardy into him for The Dark Knight Rises. Deathstroke has also appeared in various projects over the years, including, most notably, Arrow and Titans on television, while Joe Manganiello was set to appear in Ben Affleck’s version of The Batman. The actor made brief appearances in both versions of Justice League but never played a major role beyond that in the DCEU. Batman villains like Joker and The Penguin have found success in standalone projects, and DC Studios will look to continue that with the surprising team-up of Bane and Deathstroke. In the DCU film, Bane and Deathstroke will likely come together to face off against another villain and there’s one in particular who would be the perfect choice.

Ra’s al Ghul Deserves a More Faithful Adaptation

Matt Noble’s Ra’s al Ghul played a role in the Arrowverse, appearing in Arrow and The Legends of Tomorrow. In Gotham, Alexander Siddig would play a different version of the character.

Batman films have already featured many villains, and while there are still some new ones to choose from, the studio will also recycle others, like Bane and Deathstroke. Ra’s al Ghul is a major Batman villain who made his live-action debut in Batman Begins, played by Liam Neeson. In the film, he is the one to train Bruce Wayne, but eventually, he turns against him in an attempt to sack Gotham City. Ra’s al Ghul would also play a brief role in The Dark Knight Rises with his daughter Talia, appearing to finish her father’s work with Hady’s Bane there to assist. Neeson’s Ra’s al Ghul was great and captured the character’s spirit, but since Nolan was going for a realistic take on Batman and his villains, it was missing a key element.

The Dark Knight Trilogyignored the Lazarus Pit, which gives Ra’s al Ghul the ability to become immortal. It’s a missing element that can easily play into the DCU since it will contain more comic book elements. Ra’s al Ghul would eventually show up in Arrow and earn a more comic book-accurate depiction with the Lazarus Pit part of that universe. Ra’s al Ghul also has the League of Assasins by his side, which makes him much more formidable and has enough power to cause villains like Bane and Deathstroke to come together.

His Appearance Can Tie Into The Brave and the Bold

The Brave and the Bold is a planned film from DC Studios that The Flash‘s Andy Muschietti will direct. The film will introduce the DCU’s version of Batman and for the first time, bring Damian Wayne to live-action. Damian Wayne is the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul. With the DCU going down this route, that means the League of Assassins is already bound to appear in the DCU and play a role given the al Ghul connection.

It’s unclear if The Brave and the Bold will come out before the Bane and Deathstroke film, but since DC Studios announced the Batman film first, it seems likely to arrive before the villains team up. If that’s the case, then The Brave and the Bold can easily set up the Bane and Deathstroke film if it decides to include the League of Assassins as part of the story. This would also quickly expand Batman’s world within the DCU, which is something that will be necessary since Matt Reeves is also developing a a Batman universe separate from it. While Gunn has stated that each project will stand as its own rewarding story, there will still be connections to other projects, and making the League of Assassins a major part of the Bane and Deathstroke movie would be an easy way to have fun with the shared universe concept and can easily work organically through the narrative.

Ra’s al Ghul Wasn’t Part of the DCEU

The DCEU began with Man of Steel and would establish the first-ever DC universe on the big screen. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was the last film released under the DCEU. Ben Affleck was set to direct a solo Batman film that would’ve featured Deathstroke as its main villain. Ra’s al Ghul nor the League of Assassins were never established in the now-defunct universe.

The DCEU was the first time audiences got to experience a shared DC universe on the big screen and it introduced many new characters outside of Batman and Superman who were ripe for a film appearance. However, one of the major goals of the DCU will be to distance itself from the DCEU because it tarnished the DC name with an inconsistent level of quality from project to project and behind-the-scenes drama. One way of doing this will be to go down a different path creatively and use characters the DCEU never got to, and that’s reflected in the slate of projects DC Studios has announced with the inclusion of Booster Gold, Swamp Thing, the Green Lanterns, and others.

Since the DCEU never fully explored Batman’s side of the universe with no solo film ever released, Ra’s al Ghul is a character that was never touched on in it. Now, the DCU has a chance to bring the major villain back into the spotlight since it has been years since he played a prominent role in 2005’s Batman Begins. Bane and Deathstroke are also characters who didn’t play major roles in the DCEU and now the DCU can fully utilize them and a character like Ra’s al Ghul in a new story that can be fresh for audiences.

The DCU has a ton of exciting projects in the works that will look to reestablish the iconic characters who have been part of so many previous materials. Uniting Bane and Deathstroke together is a surprising move from the studio but makes sense with the Batman franchise now focusing on all of its villains in projects separate from him. Bane and Deathstroke are two formidable adversaries of the Dark Knight and if the film is truly a team-up, then there will need to be a force worthy of challenging the two.

Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassins check all of those boxes and would be a great villain to pit against Bane and Deathstroke. It would also align well with what DC Studios has already revealed with its plans for Batman in the DCU. Ra’s al Ghul is also a character who has appeared in previous live-action projects, but he still awaits a full realization on the big screen in terms of his abilities and portrayal, ethnically. Like so many other characters, the DCU has the chance to deliver a shared universe that honors the comics, and the Bane and Deathstroke film can become a project that adds to that potential.