Dave Bautista Thinks Marvel “Dropped the Ball” on Drax’s Backstory

You would be hard-pressed to find very many people in show business who will tell you Marvel isn’t doing just about everything right. Their interconnected universe spans dozens of hit films and TV shows, with almost all of them earning solid reviews and huge box office receipts. One person who does have some criticisms, though? Dave Bautista, the Guardians of the Galaxy star best known to Marvel fans as Drax the Destroyer. The star, who has always been very vocal about his opinions on the Drax character, said that while the character has been life-changing, and he can’t wait to show fans the end of his journey in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, he feels like there was potential that was never fully realized in Drax.

He made sure to be clear that he wasn’t attacking Marvel, just expressing that he thinks there was something left on the table, and that he’s a little frustrated at all the cool stories that he didn’t get to explore during his decade or so under all that makeup. He admits that it’s a bit selfish, but he’d like to have seen more.

“That role changed the trajectory of my life,” Bautista told Collider. “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. 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.”

You can see Bautista next in Army of the Dead, Zack Snyder’s upcoming zombie-heist movie, which will debut next Friday on Netflix.