Marvel films carefully balance comedy, drama, and action. But for Dave Bautista, that meant leaving out big parts of Drax’s story, according to a new interview by Collider.
With two Guardians of the Galaxy films and two Avengers films under his belt, Dave Bautista has enough time as Drax to look back and think about what he wishes had been done differently.
“I really wish [Marvel Studios] would have invested more in Drax, personally,” Bausita told Collider. “Drax has a really interesting backstory which they dropped the ball on.”
“That’s no dig on Marvel,” Bautista added. “They had their slate, I know what they focused on.”
Drax was initially presented as a dangerous murderer with a tragic backstory–Thanos servant Ronan killed his wife and daughter–but became more and more of a goofball as time went on. It started with that line, “nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast; I would catch it,” and culminated in Drax convincing himself that he’s invisible while (very) slowly eating a bag of chips. His tragic loss just never came up again.
“As a performer, that would have given me the opportunity to show different sides of Drax, emotionally. And physically as well. If you notice, Drax, although he looks like a badass…Drax gets his ass kicked more than any other Marvel character.”
“People just fell so in love with the comedic side of Drax that 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.”
Despite those regrets, Bautista says he’s looking forward to filming the third (and presumably final) Guardians of the Galaxy film, which begins filming this year, and then releases in 2023.
“I’m really excited to wrap up this whole journey with these guys. I love the Guardians cast like family. They know it. I think everybody knows that I’m pretty vocal about it.
