Warning: spoilers below for the Season 6 finale of Arrow! Read ahead at your own risk!
The Arrow-verse has seen some fantastic villains come and go over the years, but nobody can compare to Slade Wilson. Manu Bennett's super soldier has always been a standout player in Oliver Queen's adventures, and many have championed Deathstroke as being deserving of a solo series of his very own. As it turns out, Bennett himself has heard those requests, and he's onboard. Check out his social media post to see his take on the possibility.
Manu Bennett doesn't overtly say that he wants a spinoff of his very own in that post, sure, but it's pretty easy to read between the lines. He's not just tagging co-creator Marc Guggenheim in there to show him the cool picture. Deathstroke officially made a glorious return to the Arrow-verse in the Season 5 finale, and fans are eager to see the creative forces behind the small screen DC world continue capitalizing on his popularity. Does this mean that we will get a Deathstroke solo series? Not really. Does it show that there's quite a bit of fan enthusiasm to make such a series happen? Certainly. And fans have a way of getting what they want these days; the very fact that Deadpool even exists proves that) so we're not ruling anything out.
We've proposed the Arrow-verse's need to change things up and relegate Oliver Queen to a secondary player in this universe, and if The CW and DC would ever be bold enough to bring Arrow to an end, then giving Slade Wilson his own spotlight (even for a limited run of episodes) could serve as a perfect replacement. DC is about to completely change the game with its upcoming streaming service, which means it will have an entire platform that could potentially accommodate a Deathstroke series of any and all sizes. One of the first shows that will debut on the new service is a live-action Teen Titans series, and everyone knows that Deathstroke and the Titans go together like peanut butter and jelly. Could we get a live-action version of The Judas Contract? We're not sure, but sign us up anyway.
Of course, whether or not Manu Bennett will return as Slade Wilson in any capacity depends on how Season 6 of Arrow ultimately pans out. The Season 5 finale featured an excellent cliffhanger that left the lives of several fan-favorite Arrow characters (Mr. Wilson included) hanging in the balance. It seems unlikely that the series would kill Slade off, particularly with the mystery of his son still lingering, but we will have to wait until next fall to find out for sure.
Then again, even if Slade does bite the bullet on Lian Yu, maybe we could see him pop up in a prequel series. Perhaps a series centering on Slade's Mirakuru-fueled quest for revenge against Oliver Queen? Someone get Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim on the phone to make that happen.
We will just have to wait and see what happens when Deathstroke's fate is revealed next fall, as Arrow returns to The CW for its sixth season. To tide yourself over until then, check out our summer premiere guide for more information related to all of the show's that are slated to debut in the next few months.
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