Dave Bautista Says Marvel ‘Dropped the Ball’ with Drax: ‘Wished They Would’ve Invested’ in Backstory
Zack Sharf
Dave Bautista has played Drax the Destroyer in four Marvel movies so far, two “Guardians of the Galaxy” films and two “Avengers” films. The actor is gearing up to reprise the character in James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which Bautista is viewing as his MCU swan song. The actor is appreciative of the role, but he tells Collider in a new interview that Marvel “dropped the ball” in terms of doing Drax justice on the big screen. For Bautista, there was a lot of backstory about Drax that Marvel never explored onscreen and thus the character was sold short as a comedic side character.
“That role changed the trajectory of my life,” Bautista said. “It’s always going to be special to me. Now that I’m four films in…I really wished they would have invested more in Drax, personally. Because I think Drax has more of a story to tell. I think Drax has a really interesting backstory which they dropped the ball on. That’s no dig on Marvel. They had their slate, I know what they’re focused on, that’s what they have [it] slated out. But man, I think they really missed the ball on Drax. He has such a great backstory.”
Had Marvel explored the full depths of Drax’s backstory, Bautista says it “would have given me the opportunity to show different sides of Drax, emotionally. And physically as well. Because, if you notice, Drax, although he looks like a badass, you look at him and he looks terrifying, but Drax gets his ass kicked more than any other Marvel character.”
Bautista said, “The whole ‘Destroyer’ thing [Marvel Studios] just threw that out the window…people just fell so in love with the comedic side of Drax they tapped into that, then they tapped into it more, then they really dug a hole into it. But we missed a huge boat on that character and I don’t think it’ll ever come back around. But I’m really just looking forward to finishing out this whole journey.”
While Bautista’s time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe may be coming to end soon enough, he’s got a lot of other franchise work coming up. Bautista leads Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead,” which streams May 21 on Netflix and is designed to give the streaming giant a new movie universe, and he’s also got a villainous supporting turn in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune.” Another franchise awaits Bautista in “Knives Out 2,” the Rian Johnson-directed, Netflix-backed sequel in which the actor will reunite with his “Spectre” co-star Daniel Craig.
Head over to Collider’s website to read Bautista’s latest interview in its entirety.
