As an estimated 72 million households with Netflix subscriptions will be aware, leading man Dave Bautista did not make it out of Army of the Dead alive. The hulking former wrestler’s Scott Ward managed to get his daughter safely out of Las Vegas just in time to avoid nuclear incineration, but then found himself on the receiving end of a bullet to the brain before he became a zombie.
However, that isn’t set to stop him coming back for future installments, at least if insider Daniel Richtman is to be believed. Following on from his talk that Bautista was looking to return for the sequel despite meeting his demise before the credits rolled on the opener, the tipster is now claiming that the Guardians of the Galaxy star wants to be the face of the entire franchise, but there’s no sort of indication as to how he’s set to factor into future outings other than it’ll happen “somehow.”
Unless Netflix are planning on making the entire Army of the Dead universe a series of prequels, which would at least be a unique if bizarre way to craft a shared mythology, then it’ll take an awfully big storytelling leap of logic for Bautista to appear in a second chapter, never mind become the face of the entire property.
He is involved in companion series Lost Vegas, which again is a prequel set before the events of Army of the Dead, but even then, it’s Joe Manganiello’s mysterious Rose that’s been confirmed as the protagonist and main driving force behind the story. Having been involved in two of the first three projects, taken top billing in one of them and also been killed off, the odds are certainly stacked against Bautista remaining top dog, but I guess we’ll see.
