Everyone’s going on about how Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke will fit into the DCEU, and whether the actor has what it takes to carry a big-budget superhero flick. What we need to be thinking about is how wild it is that he played Flash Thompson in Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie.
Image: Sony
As important a film as Spider-Man is, you have to admit that it has a fair number of quirks that haven’t aged well. None of the actors are convincing as teenagers, Kirsten Dunst’s dye job is extremely questionable, and the source of Peter’s webbing is kind of grody. It’s also odd to look back at a much younger, less muscular Joe Manganiello getting his arse kicked by Tobey Maguire. While speaking with Mic about whether he’d be open to playing even more comic book characters in the future, Manganiello recalled what it was like playing Flash Thompson and how the cast could sense that the movie they were making was going to be something big.
Said Manganiello:
I don’t think anyone really predicted that the opening weekend was going to break the record, but I knew it was going to be huge. You could tell on set that what we were doing was something really special. It makes me feel old, ’cause I was in one of the first ones and the fact that there’s been two reboots of Spider-Man since, and there’s been other Flash Thompsons. Boy, I’m old now.
To repeat – this is the same man at 25 and then 40:
Like a fine wine.