Have you ever heard the description of a movie character and immediately thought of a real person? That’s apparently the sensation former WWE star turned actor Dave Bautista felt ahead of his upcoming movie The Killer’s Game. The big man was talking to director JJ Perry about a role that needed to be cast. The more he talked about what they were looking for, the more a really specific WWE star came to mind.
The WWE star in question is, of course, former WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. He was doing press around the recent Scotland-set PPV Clash At The Castle when he was asked about his upcoming appearance in The Killer’s Game. Here’s how he hilariously told the backstory of his casting in an interview with Irish Wrestling And Entertainment…
Dave called me and asked me if I wanted to be part of it. He had a conversation with the director. They were looking for a couple of characters, who are hitmen. They needed someone who physically looked like they could take on Dave, that is Scottish and sometimes unintelligent when he talks with a bit of a comedic side and Dave went 'I know that guy. He actually exists. He's called Drew.'
To say Drew McIntyre is on a fantastic run right now would be a colossal understatement. The Scottish Warrior returned to WWE and was arguably the company’s most consistent star during the pandemic, but he seemed to be stuck in the mud and was losing momentum quickly for much of 2023. Then the writers pivoted his character from being a good guy to a bad guy (or babyface to a heel in wrestling terms), and he’s been on the rise ever since. He’s now arguably once again the most talked about superstar on the entire roster (at least with Roman Reigns and The Rock on hiatus), and it seems likely he will main event SummerSlam in a few months, which is widely considered to be WWE’s second biggest PPV of the year.
WWE has a long history of turning its superstars into major Hollywood players. Bautista, The Rock and John Cena are huge stars who regularly lead major budget movies, and long before that, guys like Andre The Giant and Hulk Hogan became major celebrities. More recently, a host of famous faces deeper on the roster have started appearing regularly in movies and TV shows. Seth Rollins shot scenes for an upcoming Marvel movie (though there may be bad news there). Liv Morgan appeared in Chucky. The Miz was on Dancing With The Stars, and there are countless other examples.
The Killer’s Game is being distributed by Lionsgate and is set to be released this September. It stars Dave Bautista as an assassin who puts out a hit on himself after he’s diagnosed with an incurable health condition. Fortunately or unfortunately, he later discovers the diagnosis was a mistake and is suddenly in the position of having to fight for his life against the assassins he already hired. It looks like a lot of fun, and by all accounts, should contain the perfect role for Drew McIntyre.
