Dave Bautista: Guardians of the Galaxy 3 will likely be “the end of Drax”
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 received an official release date earlier this week, and director James Gunn recently confirmed that filming for the sequel will begin sometime this year. However, there was a time the future of the series looked bleak, back when Gunn was temporarily fired from Disney after a number of inappropriate tweets surfaced, many of them dating back to 2009 and 2010. The director has since apologized and been rehired, but not without plenty of discourse along the way. And Guardians star Dave Bautista (Drax) has staunchly defended his boss, even threatening to depart from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and join Gunn’s The Suicide Squad after the director was let go.
But that didn’t happen. Bautista will appear in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, but he assumedly could have appeared in The Suicide Squad as well. Speaking with Digital Spy, Bautista admitted that the reason he didn’t was because he got an offer to work on Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead for Netflix. “I was all up for it, and then I got Army of the Dead, which was not really a lead role for me, but also I really wanted to work with Zack Snyder. I’ve been wanting to work with him for years.”
According to Bautista, Gunn had even written him a role in The Suicide Squad should he want to join another team of comic book misfits, but the opportunity at Netflix was just too good to pass up:
"I had The Suicide Squad where I got to work with my boy again, even though it’s a smaller role, and then I had Army of the Dead on which I get to work with Zack, I get to build a relationship with Netflix, I get a lead role in a great film – and I get paid a lot more money."
It’s hard to argue with that logic. And as much as we would have loved to see Bautista take on another comic book role under Gunn’s direction again, there’s no denying how great he looks in Netflix’s zombie heist film, Army of the Dead. (We’ll certainly be watching when it arrives on May 21!)
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 could be the final outing for Dave Bautista as Drax
And of course, Bautista and Gunn will work together again in Guardians 3. According to Bautista, at one point there were plans well beyond that. “There were talks for a while about a Drax and Mantis film,” he told Digital Spy. “It was really because it was James Gunn’s idea. He really wanted to do a Drax and Mantis film. He laid it out to me. I thought it was such a brilliant idea, but I haven’t heard any follow-up from the studio.”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that film will come to fruition. In fact, unless something changes, Guardians 3 could mark the end of the road for this character. “I’ve got Guardians 3, and that’s probably going to be the end of Drax.”
Next. David Ayer says his Suicide Squad cut was 'amazing'. dark
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