Manu Bennett Disses Arrow?

Deathstroke Speaks:

http://comicbook.com/2015/04/04/manu-bennett-thinks-arrow-took-deathstroke-in-the-wrong-directio/

Just about everyone loves Manu Bennett's take on Deathstroke the Terminator on The CW's Arrow...except, apparently, Bennett himself.

“I think Deathstroke had a lot of possibilities with Arrow but, I think they took it in the wrong direction,” Bennett told theMusic.com.au during an interview in support of his appearances at Melbourne's Supanova.

“I think they should have honoured the Marv Wolfman character who was literally unstoppable. I read the DC comic books and thought Deathstroke was so bad arse because they make it that nobody can stop him. He’s not even super-powered, he is just a mercenary," explained Bennett, who also starred as a villain in Warner Bros.' The Hobbit films. “It took the Justice League to defeat him; it took an army to take him on. In Arrow, it took a while for Oliver [Queen/Arrow] to prove his point, but [season three] was just a beating of Slade, adding insult to injury.”

While there were quite a few similar complaints from fans about Bennett's sole Season Three appearance on the show -- where he was defeated by Oliver and Thea after escaping from his prison on Lian Yu -- the way Deathstroke was handled in the show isn't dissimilar to how major villains are frequently depicted in the comics.

Called "villain decay" on TVTropes, the idea is that since most villains are nigh-invincible in their first appearance so as to make them seem like a legitimate threat to the heroes, subsequent appearances where they're dispatched more easily can discredit them in the long term. See also Batman Begins villain Scarecrow's appearance in The Dark Knight, although that was arguably redeemed by his handling in The Dark Knight Rises.

Arguably the biggest news in the story is that Bennett will not return to Arrow...but that's only stated in the article; the quotes themselves don't support such a bold statement, unless there's more to the interview that will run later.

Of course, Slade Wilson is now rumored to appear -- now played by Joe Manganiello -- in the forthcoming big-screen adaptation of DC Comics' Suicide Squad. After his apprehension last season, many fans wondered whether Deathstroke might be a part of Arrow's Squad when he or the group resurfaced in Season Three. Ironically, it seems likely given what has been said about Deadshot that both Deathstroke and the Squad could be much harder to use on Arrownow that the movie is happening.

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http://themusic.com.au/news/all/2015/04/04/new-zealand-arrow-star-manu-bennett-unhappy-with-departure-from-show/

While Arrow fans might be disheartened by the news, Bennett has moved onto a new project already.

“There was an audition in Hollywood and just by chance I landed a series that they were shooting back here in New Zealand called Shannara. It’s a book series created by Terry Brooks, and is the second largest selling series,” he explained.

“I’m playing Allanon, and he’s like Gandalf meets Deathstroke - kick arse dude. What I think is that The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit audiences have sort of been left with nothing now that Peter Jackson’s two trilogies have come to an end. I think that Shannara will fill that void.”

You can catch Manu Bennett at Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Melbourne (10-12 Apr) and the Gold Coast (17-19 Apr).

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So is this the end of Deathstroke on Arrow? What do you think about what Manu said?

I agree.They just threw Deathstroke away

Deathstroke is super-powered though....

Don't really care. He just doesn't like how they used him in the one episode this year, and Deathstroke can't be the huge threat he initially was every season or he would always be the big bad.

Only sole reason I watched Arrow was because of Deathstroke,and yeah it was executed poorly. Now this whole Ra's Al Ghul crap...

But it doesn't really seem like they thought this whole thing through. The characters they use on the movie's can't be used in the Tv Universe. So reoccuring characters that were already there "Deathstroke,Deadshot" have to disappear for a while I'm guessing.

He is kind of right, his character was only Deathstroke by name and I too hated how his season 3 appearance was basically just a pawn in Merlyn's schemes.

I really liked his portrayal. But Manu does have valid arguments. I still would have liked to have seen an Identity Crisis Slade where he is just a flat out beast.

I think he was speaking to the fact that he should have still stomped Ollie and Thea on the Island even without his powers.

I think he meant that he isn't super powered in the comics. Which of course he is, but he probably meant that in the scheme of things, he's an insect, he's such a low level superhuman that when he's facing higher level threats he may as well be human, yet he can still cause trouble for crazy powerful guys.

At the meat of it, Manu is right here in my opinion, they did sort of fudge up Slade and just took a dump on his chest this season.

The latter half of season one is still my favourite and I still think Manu is awesome and played as good a Deathstroke as could be with the material he had.

@rogueshadow: I agree bringing him back just to be some sort of villain of the week, that was lame. Shows like Buffy & Supernatural never treated their villains with such disrespect. If an old villain shows up again then they are usually set to become another major part of the story: Spike Angel, etc.

He is right here. They shouldn't have used him, the way they used him in the return. I think It would have been more badass if they used him on an episode of the Flash, that way it would have been cooler.

@black_arrow: Actually it would have been more bad*** for him to get his powers back and show up on Teen Titans TNT(if it's true that Teen Titans and the Arrowverse are together).

Or they should have saved him to show up in season 4 as they battle hive and ollie and he make peace and he comes to back to fight the Hive together.

That would have been awesome too. I don't think that he would ever make peace with Oliver. Also I think that they should have make the cure be temporary, because his version seems more potent than the rest and because he had it for many years in his system.

He's right.

Arrow's Deathstorke was awesome, but he could have been way waay more awesome

~MIB

@black_arrow: I think they could have said something like that where the cure only worked on him for a little while because it had been in his system for a long time. I think there are ways of Ollie and Slad being able to make peace. Let's say like in the comics they give Slade his daughter only she is in trouble and it involves The Hive. Then Ollie and Slade team up to fight a common enemy, then throughout that story thread Slade realizes he's been wrong about Ollie's strength of character.

I agree with him

They could have done something like that and it would have been way better than his treatment in season 3. It would have been a very awesome way to reintroduce the character, now It seems that we might never see him again.

@black_arrow: Well even though I don't usually watch MTV shows, I will be on the lookout for Shannara.

He has some valid points, but I wouldn't call it a diss.

@mrtummytumms: Anytime someone you worked or work with is publicly saying you screwed up, it's a diss. Even coaches are hesitant to publicly criticize their players when everyone knows when they screw up, but you rarely hear a coach willing to criticize them in a interview or on camera.

Arrow's Deathstroke was awesome solely because of Manu,his performance is the highlight of the series, in terms of writing Deathstroke was pretty bad from the mid point of season 2 and onwards.

Whatta baby

The Return was the most pointless episode of the entire season,Arrow has gone downhill creatively,WB should restrict their access to Batman characters and stories so that they'd actually get off their lazy a$$es.

I'm gonna have to agree with Bennet on this one here. I mean he's freaking Deathstroke for christ sake, dude's literally a f*ckin badass. It would've taken much more than that to kill him off. Now I know that it's only TV and they only have so much budget but if you're gonna bring in Slade, at least treat him properly. If the Suicide Squad film rumors are true about Wilson being in it, I at least hope that they'd treat him the proper right way and make him almost unstoppable.

Oh well. Get over it. I don't like that they made him crazy and holding a grudge over a death that clearly wasn't Ollie's fault, but I got over it...eventually.

I agree with Deathstroke.

I suspect Bennett is probably done with syndicated television, with his voice work in The Hobbit flicks and other upcoming high profile film gigs. What is really cool here is how familiar Bennett was with Slade Wilson's character, not just playing lip service to the fans.

Couldn't of said it better myself.

He's not wrong, but the TV show as a whole doesn't really resemble the comics much.

Arrow fights more in hand to hand than he uses his bow. He more closely resembles Batman than Green Arrow. Black Canary is nothing like comic Canary.

While I didn't expect Slade to much reflect his comic self, he was pretty underwhelming as a whole. Awesome story villain, but wasn't as big a threat in the end as he should have been.

Last time they made a fool out of Deathstroke....He deserve to be angry...Deathstroke is far more superior than what Arrow showed him to be..

O_O He'll be in Melbourne this weekend?

Supanova here I come! ^_^

My boy needs his own show

The Undefeated Champion of Capua does as he pleases.

And Deathstroke makes Arrow his bitch in the comics. The show is a joke lol.

Good for him for speaking his mind about his role in Season 3. It really did feel like a missed opportunity.

Thats the problem with villains in live action, for some reason live action cant let villains take down heroes.

Deathstroke start as one of the best, then they made him a jobber, this its getting worst.

If Deathstroke its in the Suicide Squad its going to be there to make Will Smith look great, then he will face Batfleck and lose, they will never let Deathstroke be Deathstroke, because people would cry if he goes and stomps Will Smith, stomps Ben Affleck, stomps everybody, heck its more easy to believe Deadpool its going to be an important part of the Fox X Men universe that WB its going to do a good job with Deathstroke at this point.

WB see Deathstroke as a jobber to the stars, not as a main event guy.

I thought the same thing. Glad I'm not the only one who thought that. Because Ra's Al Ghul do not come off as Ra's Al Ghul. I cannot really take him as Ra's Al Ghul.

So true. No way he would come off as a pawn in Merlyn schemes. It would have definitely been the other way around.

Agreed.

So true. Though he really can be. But why did I think of the World Wrestling Entertainment when you said that?

I would honestly say that they shouldn't have went to crazy route, or he should have been neutral after lost the mirakuru... after all why would he still be crazy if the thing that made him crazy left his system?

I don't feel Manu dissed Arrow. He just didn't agree with the direction is all. There is a difference. Now while I agree I would have preferred a different direction I'm not sure I'd agree with his either. Slade taking on the entire league was pretty dumb. Also Slade was never just a mercenary. He's always been enhanced.

Arrow and Batman Arkham Origins both made DS look weak though they made him more popular.

@darkbeam: I think Arrow made him look bada***. Manu is just saying they took the wrong direction with the character. He could be like a Spike or Angel that becomes a long time show favorite and regular, instead they treated him like a typical villain of the week. Hell he could have given him his own spinoff where he works for Argus as an assassin.

@lukehero: The fact is DS should never lose to Green Arrow in any way or form.But in his in the last two appearances on Arrow both in the last episode of season two and in season three he got punked not only by Oliver but by his sister as well so that says a lot that even Manu realizes that there hurting his character.

@darkbeam: I get what you are saying on the 2nd appearance, but Oliver had to beat him via plot device in the 2nd season.

In a new interview, Manu says that he doesn't rule out a return of Deathstroke in Arrow.

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/the-hobbit-and-spartacus-actor-manu-bennett-scares-colleagues-with-ultrarealistic-fight-scenes/news-story/84310dcdc4f1ddc7b3f825b9a836f339

@darthduelist9: That's huge!!!

@lukehero: Yeah, it seems to me that he would like to return and expects that to happen in the future.

@darthduelist9: I hope it is a major player and or regular on the show. I would love for Deathstroke to get his own show, but that's probably never going to happen.

Man's got a point.

@darthduelist9: That's awesome. Also had no clue he choked an assistant out to get the role, dude's nuts lol!

I remember this...and re-reading it I still agree. While I still hold that Arrow doesn't closely resemble the comics in any way, they still built Slade up as this force of a man that was pretty easily torn down in the end.

They did it with Ra's, and likely will with Darhk.

Bennett's performance was the highlight of the Deathstroke character, if you look at it from a purely written standpoint Slade wasn't really anything special or well put together in my opinion.

@granitesoldier: I felt the problem with Ras is he wasn't given enough screen time to develop and they took him out of the plot a lot of the time. Season 3 was a disjointed narrative. I think season 4 is much better, but they still have yet to return to season 2 quality.