#Dave Bautista Says Marvel Dropped the Ball on Drax’s Origin Story

Marvel Studios dropped the ball on adapting Drax for Guardians of the Galaxy from page to screen according to Drax himself, Dave Bautista. While acknowledging that the role had changed his life, the actor could not help but wonder what the character would have been like in the MCU had the studio more closely stuck to his comic book origins.

“That role changed the trajectory of my life. 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 slated out. But man, I think they really missed the ball on Drax. He has such a great backstory.”

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In his first comic book appearance back in 1973, Drax begins life as Real estate agent Arthur Douglas, who is killed along with his family by The Mad Titan, Thanos. Arthur’s spirit is placed into an indestructible body made from Earth’s soil and is named Drax the Destroyer, his sole purpose to stop and kill Thanos, which he eventually does by ripping his heart out of his chest.

A much, much more convoluted and complex backstory that what was adapted for the MCU, Bautista wishes at least some of these elements had been carried over as they would have given him a lot more to play with as a performer.

“Selfishly, as a performer, that 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…The whole ‘Destroyer’ thing they 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.”

The comedy aspect is certainly something that Drax fans had to get used to, and apparently, they weren’t the only ones. While Dave Bautista continues to have some frustrations over how Drax ended up being presented, the actor still cannot wait to wrap up his story in the upcoming sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, which is likely to be his last outing; “But other than that, no. I mean, as far as my obligations, I’ve got Guardians 3, and that’s probably going to be the end of Drax,” Bautista said recently.

Dave Bautista is still set to return as Drax twice more, in Thor: Love and Thunder and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which was recently given a release date of May 2023. Outside of the MCU, Bautista will still have a lot on his plate, beginning with Netflix’s Army of the Dead, which is due for released in select theaters in the United States on May 14, 2021, and then digitally on Netflix on May 21. The actor has also recently been tapped to star alongside Daniel Craig in director Rian Johnson’s Knives Out 2. This comes to us from Collider.

Topics: Guardians of the Galaxy