In case you hadn’t noticed, Dave Bautista wants to play Bane. Not only has he found himself being linked to the role for years, with plenty of fan art being created imagining how he would look as Batman’s hulking adversary, but he even burst into a meeting with Warner Bros. and demanded the part, even though he was talking with the studio for something else entirely.
Bautista has hardly been shy about it, and even explained in great detail why he’d be great at it, while both the fans and Zack Snyder have publicly backed the idea of seeing the ex-professional wrestler throw on the mask and beat Batman’s ass six ways from Sunday.
The 52 year-old now has another notable supporter on board, after Bane creator Chuck Dixon revealed his thoughts on the prospect of Bautista as Bane, going so far as to describe the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Drax as the perfect fit for the character.
“Well, I feel really good about it since he seems eager to play the character. And he’s a Hispanic gentleman, an hombre, and seems to be a real smart guy so he’d be able to play that aspect of Bane. And of course, obviously he has the physicality to play my favorite Batman villain. So, yeah, I’d feel pretty good about it. And because he’s so eager to do it. I think Bautista is a perfect casting choice. But it’s not up to me. And it’s not up to me. It’s up to a bunch of agents because they seem to run Hollywood these days. But maybe someday it will happen. I’d like to see that.”
Not only are we getting to separate Batman franchises from Warner Bros. moving forward, one with Robert Pattinson under the cape and cowl and the other with Michael Keaton, but Bautista is also set to retire from the makeup chair as Drax once Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 calls it a wrap, so there’s plenty of time and opportunity on his side for now.
However, part of his decision to walk away from the MCU is the pressures of getting into shirtless shape now that he’s into his 50s, and Bautista was even talking about going back up to his WWE weight of 320 pounds if he was going to do Bane justice, so let’s hope the circumstances present themselves sooner rather than later, before his window slams shut.
