Dave Bautista has been shouting from the rooftops about how Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will mark his final outing as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Drax the Destroyer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be giving up on the comic book genre entirely.
After all, the former professional wrestler admitted that his decision is largely motivated by a combination of having to spend hours in the makeup chair before he can even set foot on set, where he proceeds to remain shirtless for the majority of the entire shoot. By the time Vol. 3 arrives in May 2023 he’ll be 54 years old, so you can understand why the hassle isn’t really going to be worth it much longer.
Bautista revealed that he turned down a role written specifically for him by James Gunn in The Suicide Squad in order to take top billing in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead instead, but we’re hearing from our sources – the same ones who told us a Justice League Dark show was in the works for HBO Max long before it was announced with J.J. Abrams at the helm – that he could yet end up playing a part in any potential third outing for Task Force X.
The Suicide Squad may have under-performed commercially even by the standards of the pandemic era, but both Gunn and Warner Bros. are keen to continue their working relationship. The filmmaker is known to be very close with Bautista, so if he ends up getting another bite at the cherry and we see the dysfunctional band of misfits, criminals and murderers brought back for another deadly mission, then it definitely can’t be ruled out that we might end up seeing him as a member of the roster.