‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Star Dave Bautista Casts Doubt on Drax Return

After Disney fired James Gunn from the Marvel Cinematic Universe ahead of filming on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, actor Dave Bautista has not shied from criticizing his employer’s actions.

Though he’s currently preparing to film reshoots for Avengers 4, the actor cast doubt on his potential return as Drax for the next Guardians film based on Disney’s reaction.

“It’s a bitter, bitter conversation because I’m not really happy with what they’ve done with James Gunn,” Bautista said on The Jonathan Ross Show. “They’re putting the movie off, it’s on hold indefinitely. To be honest with you, I don’t know if I want to work for Disney.”

Bautista has criticized Disney’s decision to fire James Gunn based on how the entire circumstance occurred.

To recap, Gunn was canned after old Twitter posts surfaced in which the director wrote about paedophilia, transmisogyny, and other topics that he has since insisted were jokes. But in recent years, Gunn has been a vocal opponent of President Donald Trump and many of his supporters, especially Alt-Right trolls and Pizzagate supports like Jack Posobiec and Mike Cernovich.

Those two took credit for digging up Gunn’s old tweets and publicizing them to the point where Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn decided to take action against the Guardians director, and Bautista has since denounced the action as being politically motivated in bad faith.

The cast of Guardians of the Galaxy, including Bautsita, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, and many of the other prominent actors, all signed a letter that supported the rehiring of Gunn, but Disney ultimately decided against it.

Bautista continued to criticize Disney’s actions, tweeting his support for Gunn.

“I will do what Im (sic) legally obligated to do but [Guardians of the Galaxy] without [James Gunn] is not what I signed up for. GOTG w/o [James Gunn] just isn’t GOTG. Its also pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists #cybernazis . That’s just how I feel,” Bautista wrote on Twitter.

On Ross’ show, he embellished on his support for Gunn by saying he would not have a successful acting career without his help.

“I love James. James really changed my life so it’s a personal thing too,” Bautista said. “I struggled, I starved for three years, I could barely get a job. There were a few people who believed in me along the way but James was the one who really changed the course of my life.”

We’ll see what Bautista decides to do, but he’ll next appear in Avengers 4 coming out in May 2019.