Dave Bautista OK Recasting Drax

The gut-wrenching backstory of Drax the Destroyer has been mentioned several times in the current run of Marvel movies but never told in full. If that story ever gets a Black Widow-esque prequel origin treatment, though, star Dave Bautista plans to be looking at the screen, not being on it.

Over the past few weeks, Bautista has made it clear that 2023′s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be the last time we see him as Drax, but he’s also said he wishes Marvel would do more with the character and dive deeper into how Drax became the Destroyer. Speaking with Uproxx, Bautista said even though Guardians writer-director James Gunn said “There’s no Drax for me without you,” given the nature of comics books, even if Gunn and Bautista are done with Drax, Marvel doesn’t have to be. And the actor would be totally fine with it.

“The character’s not going anywhere and they can revamp him and reboot him all day long, which I believe that they should,” Bautista said. “I would love to see it personally, as a fan. I would love to see them do Drax’s story justice because it’s such a great story. And I believe that if there’s somebody that can step in and put a whole different twist on it and play Drax, then it would just be a different look, but it’s a possibility and something I’d like to see personally as a fan.”

This comes a few days after Bautista made waves by saying Marvel “dropped the ball” on Drax, which he meant less as an insult and more as an unfortunate turn of events. “I really wished they would have invested more in Drax, personally, because I think Drax has more of a story to tell,” Bautista told Collider. “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 slated out. But man, I think they really missed the ball on Drax. He has such a great backstory.”

Bautista continued, explaining that as an actor, of course, he would’ve wanted to do more, but he felt Marvel had to get away from Drax because of what the fans were latching on to. “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,” he said. “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.”

Bautista’s journey is likely to end in May 2023 when Guardians Vol. 3 comes out. However, if Drax does live on, it sounds like Bautista is fine letting someone else don the head-to-toe makeup.

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