When Dave Bautista tried to play Batman villain Bane…and was told no

Imagine, in an alternate universe, Batman villain Bane being played by Dave Bautista. While that would surely be awesome, the retired wrestler can only dream of playing the super-strong, highly intelligent bad guy, although he did try to make it a reality.

Bautista has played the alien warrior Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy films and two Avengers movies. And soon enough, we’ll see him taking down hordes of the undead in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead.  He’s had a part in so many fantasy and sci-fi projects over the years, but he’s never landed a role in the DC universe.

But his heart yearns for it. “Oh, it would be Bane all day long,” he said during an appearance at Justice Con, when a fan asked him what character he’d like to play. “I’ve made no secret about this.”

He wants it so much, in fact, that he once took initiative and pitched the idea to the studio. “I want to play Bane so bad I went to Warner Bros, had an appointment with them, had an appointment with DC, walked in the door and said, ‘I want to play Bane.’ I’m not kidding.”

Unfortunately, the proposal didn’t go according to plan. “They were a little like, ‘Woah, we’re not even casting Bane.’ I was like, ‘I don’t care, I’m playing him.'”

Dave Bautista continued quest to land his dream roles

He continued the discussion later on Twitter:

Given the huge number of superhero movies and TV shows getting released in recent years, I’m confident that Bane will need to be cast again sooner or later. If Warner Bros. doesn’t consider Bautista as an option, I will be very disappointed.

This isn’t the first time Bautista has chased his acting dreams like this. He tried  to play a zombie on AMC’s The Walking Dead only to be told he didn’t have the right build. “I tried to get on [The] Walking Dead for years,” he told Empire. “I said I would come and play a zombie for free, but they said, ‘You’re too big!'”

You’ve got to respect his determination. Still, he certainly has no shortage of upcoming films. Army of the Dead premieres on Netflix on May 14. Looking forward to next year, he’s playing Glossu Rabban in Dune. Of course, his fan-favorite portrayal of Drax in the MCU isn’t ending anytime soon — he will return to the character in Thor: Love and Thunder.

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