Gareth Evans is in talks to helm the 'Deathstroke' film.

Gareth Evans

Gareth Evans

The filmmaker - who helmed 'The Raid' and its sequel - is reportedly joining the DC Extended Universe in the standalone movie based around the Teen Titans villain, according to The Wrap.

Deathstroke - the alter-ego of Slade Wilson - was created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, and first appeared in 'The New Teen Titans (vol 1) #2' back in 1980.

Since his introduction he has gone on to become a fan favourite among comic book fans and was voted the 24th Greatest Villain of All Time by Wizard magazine.

Last September, Joe Manganiello was reported to be taking on the role of the mercenary for the upcoming 'Batman' movie alongside Ben Affleck.

The 40-year-old actor admitted he couldn't be happier about it as he's always "rooted for the villain" when watching similar films.

He said: "I'm very excited. I just started kung fu, qigong and cutting with a live katana blade. That's been a lot of fun.

"I grew up rooting for the villain. These characters mean so much to so many people and there's a real opportunity to polarise an audience or have them walk away maybe not agreeing with my character but understanding why he does what he does. That's a really fun challenge."

Manganiello also got the seal of approval from Wolfman, who created the comic book character for DC Comics in 1980.

Posting a picture of the pair to his Facebook page, the 70 year old wrote: "After a great lunch with Joe Manganiello, I feel more confident than ever that we got both the Slade Wilson the movies need and the Deathstroke great movies deserve."

Despite being the perfect person to take on Deathstroke, Joe recently revealed that he almost bagged the role of iconic superhero Superman instead, but filming commitments to his supernatural TV series 'True Blood' kept him from securing the role for 2013's 'Man of Steel'.

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