Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has had a tumultuous production so far, and it hasn’t even begun shooting yet. There was that awful bad faith campaign launched by a mega chud to get James Gunn fired from the pic, and then one of the project’s big players, Dave Bautista, had a loud feud with Disney over Gunn’s termination, which also led to the wrestler threatening to depart from the film if James wasn’t brought back. Thankfully, he was.
Before that happened, though, the two still wanted to work together and Bautista recently shared that he and his favorite director talked about a possible appearance in The Suicide Squad. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor confirmed with a sly wink and a nudge that he did indeed talk shop with Gunn about the upcoming Suicide Squad adventure. “Yeah, yeah we did,” the former wrestler said with a laugh when asked by reporter Brian Davids if the two spoke about the topic during Gunn’s surprise sabbatical.
Dave Bautista has had quite the career since leaving his post as a big, fake wrestler. He went from playing bit part bruisers in minor films like The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption and that third Riddick movie, to playing better bit parts in Spectre and Blade Runner 2049. He was arguably the best thing about both Guardian of the Galaxy films, too, so it makes sense that James Gunn would want one of his mains stars in his next picture.
All and all, I’m glad these two kept their friendship strong through that hellfire and that the collaborations don’t seem to be stopping. Having Dave join the already stacked cast of the anti-hero assemblage film would have been just another reason to tentatively dip your toe back in that particular pool, so it’s too bad it didn’t work out. While the first one may be hot garbage, The Suicide Squad is shaping up to be so much more than its predecessor. Let’s just hope Jared Leto’s dumbass Joker doesn’t pop up.