Ever since Ben Affleck squeezed his huge frame into Batman‘s spandex, the series has hit choppy waters. Sure, there’s been lots of fanfare and lots of talk, but not a tremendous amount of quality output. Outside of a fun but short stint in Suicide Squad, Affleck snarled and grimaced his way through 150 minutes of dour CGI in Batman V Superman, a film that might have sounded good scribbled on the back of a kid’s comic book, but looked rather silly on the silver screen.
The pressure’s on now to right these wrongs. Step up The Batman. Set for a 2018 release, Affleck’s standalone flick is the biggest film outside of Star Wars on the horizon. But it’s in a spot of trouble. For one, Affleck has disembarked the director’s chair, being replaced by Matt Reeves. Now, the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes helmer is intent on re-writing the story, and that means that Joe Manganiello’ Deathstroke has reportedly been dumped from his role of principal bad guy. Word has it that he’ll still be in the film, but in a supporting role.
So, with no concrete story, no real film title and no concrete plot details to speak of, it’s up to We Got This Covered to save the day. Here, we present to you 7 esteemed villains who are worthy of squaring off against Bats in the upcoming blockbuster should these rumors about Deathstroke being dropped prove to be true.