Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: James Gunn Reveals Which Character Was the Most Popular in Test Screenings and It Wasn't Baby Groot

By Jamie Jirak

James Gunn is currently working on the long-awaited Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is expected to go into production soon. The movie will see the return of all the Guardians of the Galaxy stars, including Dave Bautista as Drax. Recently, Bautista has been very candid about his experience with Marvel, admitting that he's in a "weird place" with playing Drax. Now that he's 52-years-old, he feels he's past the point of wanting to play a character with his shirt off all of the time. During a recent interview, Bautista shared that the role of Drax changed his life, but admitted he thinks Marvel "dropped the ball" on Drax's story. However, it's clear Bautista loves working with Gunn, so it's no surprise he's returning to Marvel once again. The love is clearly mutual as Gunn often takes to social media to praise the wrestler-turned-actor. In fact, he shared some interesting information about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Bautista on Twitter today. 

"Hello @JamesGunn, I'm playing the GOTG game (it's excellent) and it got me thinking – were there any other actors you had read for or even test for Drax?." @TheMarkRants asked. "Hundreds read. A couple tested. But at the end of the day @DaveBautista was my only choice & the only guy who got the character right," Gunn replied. "I think Drax is my favorite character," @alanou commented. "In the test screenings of Volume 2, Drax was the most popular character, edging out Baby Groot," Gunn revealed. You can check out the tweets below:

"That role changed the trajectory of my life," Bautista recently told Collider about playing Drax. "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."

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is currently scheduled to be released on May 23, 2023 

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