Dave Bautista has assembled quite the lineup of acting credits over the last decade, with the former WWE star becoming particularly well known for playing Drax the Destroyer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nowadays though, it’s not uncommon for an actor to appear in more than one comic book franchise, and evidently Bautista tried his best to jump into the world of DC Comics to play Batman adversary Bane.
This information comes straight from Dave Bautista himself, who said the following to a fan inquiring if rumors of the actor appearing in The Batman as Bane were true:
For nearly two years now, Dave Bautista portraying Bane in live action has been a popular fan casting online, which of course led to fan art depicting him as the character. Unfortunately for those of you who had your heart set on this, Bautista revealed on Twitter that his efforts to score the Bane role were unsuccessful. Perhaps that will change in the future, but for now, it’s not in the cards.
Now that we know that Dave Bautista took steps to try to play Bane, the next question to consider is how this came about, and for which project? Yes, the rumor he recently responded to concerned The Batman, but the fan interest for him playing Bane originated with regard to The Suicide Squad, the second movie to bring Task Force X into action in the DC Extended Universe.
Considering that The Batman already boasts The Riddler, The Penguin and Catwoman as villains, not to mention other baddies like Firefly and Mad Hatter having previously been rumored to appear, I doubt Bane was ever in consideration to appear in the Caped Crusader’s next movie. That said, it would be cool to see Bane show up in this version of Gotham City someday.
Taking into account that James Gunn, who Dave Bautista has previously worked with on the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, directed The Suicide Squad, not to mention that Bane has history with the team in the comics, it’s much likelier that a Bautista as Bane appearance would have happened in that project. With Gunn in his corner, Bautista certainly could have made headway with convincing the right parties at Warner Bros that he was the man for the job. Alas, in the end, it didn’t work out.
Thus far, Bane has appeared twice in live-action film: late WCW wrestler Robert “Jeep” Swenson played him in Batman & Robin, and Tom Hardy played him in The Dark Knight Rises. With the former being a dumbed-down brute and numerous creative liberties being taken with the latter, it’d be great if someday we got a cinematic Bane who’s more faithful to how he’s shown in the comics, from his reliance on Venom to his tactical mind. Shane West also played Bane in the final season of the Fox series Gotham.
As for Dave Bautista’s current comic book movie gig, we can expect him to reprise Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which James Gunn will shift to when The Suicide Squad is finished. However, considering that Vin Diesel said Thor: Love and Thunder will include some, if not all of the Guardians, maybe that means Drax will return to the big screen as soon as February 2022.
The Suicide Squad hits theaters on August 6, 2021, and The Batman will follow on October 1 of the same year. You can learn what other DC Comics movies are coming up with our handy guide.
