Guardians of the Galaxy Director James Gunn Clarifies Drax’s Coloring

James Gunn is currently filming Peacemaker in Canada for DC and HBO Max, but the director is expected to return to Marvel soon. In fact, he recently shared that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will begin filming later this year. Gunn often responds to fan questions on Twitter, and a recent thread included him solving a debate about Drax's (Dave Bautista) coloring.

"Hey James, my girlfriend keeps saying that Drax is blue. Can you please confirm his color for me," @colin3443 asked. "Sure. This is not the first time a couple has come to me in serious trouble disagreeing over Drax's color in the MCU. He is gray, but, like most gray things, he can take on a blue or green tint under some lights. But he is definitely gray," Gunn replied.

Someone else asked Gunn why they changed Drax's green coloring from the comic books and he replied, "Gamora was green & I didn't want two green people on the team. And on top of that green, for various reasons, is by far the most difficult makeup to make look like real skin (blue, yellow, pink, etc are all easier)." Tattoo artist @joshbodwell chimed in and said, "Drax always appears grey with reddish 'Tattoos' for me as a viewer but thank you for the clarification!" Gunn replied, "That is what he is (scarification more so than tattoos though)." You can view Gunn's tweets below:

Gamora was green & I didn’t want two green people on the team. And on top of that green, for various reasons, is by far the most difficult makeup to make look like real skin (blue, yellow, pink, etc are all easier). https://t.co/2QsPmkkzc1

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) March 3, 2021

Last year, Gunn also shared some information about Bautista's make-up process. During the first Guardians of the Galaxy, he sat in the make-up chair for five hours, but that was greatly reduced down to one hour for Vol. 2.

"The company that did the work on Vol 2, Legacy, created a sort of Drax 'shirt' for his arms and upper body," Gunn explained. "In addition to being quicker it was much better - although the aesthetic design was cool from the beginning, the separate pieces in the first film would swell with Dave's sweat and start to crinkle so that his whole body looked like a Sharpei," Gunn added. "This required a lot of CG help and cleanup we didn't need in Vol 2. In the second film the shirt is so incredibly thin and form-fitting we actually see way more of Dave's body and muscles."

Stay tuned for more updates about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.