Watch: Batista Officially Available as an Unlockable Character in Gears 5

Former WWE Champion and Guardians of the Galaxy star Batista (real name Dave Bautista) was officially added into Gears 5 on Sunday as a customized version of Marcus Fenix's character. All any player has to do in order to unlock "The Animal" is play any version of the game from now through Oct. 28 and he'll automatically become available.

Batista's involvement in the franchise was officially confirmed back in early September via an announcement trailer and subsequent press release via Xbox Wire.

Time to be The Animal! You can play as Batista in #Gears5 beginning right now as @WWE #ClashofChampions gets underway.

Find Batista in the Marcus character customization menu. pic.twitter.com/0xPsX3PMTJ

— Gears of War (@GearsofWar) September 15, 2019

As Gears 5 director Rod Fergusson explained, Batista's involvement came about after the former pro wrestler spent years campaigning to play to role of Marcus Fenix in the upcoming Gears of War film adaptation.

"Adding Batista to Gears 5, we started with the fantasy of 'Batista as Marcus,' putting Batista into Marcus' armor, and starting with Marcus' script," he said in the Xbox Wire story. "Then we added elements of "The Animal" Batista into his voice performance and onto his look by adding his signature Hollywood shades to his character. Batista was great in the booth and I can't wait for Gears and Batista fans alike to stomp some Swarm as The Animal."

Batista reportedly recorded more than 700 lines of dialogue for the role, so he'll be bringing more than just his physical appearance when players choose him in multiplayer.

Batista Marcus Fenix is freakin unleashed now on #Gears5 @GearsofWar pic.twitter.com/mBMvJClmnv

— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) September 16, 2019

Fergusson went into further detail about casting the big man in a behind-the-scenes video on the gaming channel UpUpDownDown, which is run by WWE Superstar Xavier Woods.

"When you want to work with people, you want to work with people who want to be apart of the franchise," Fergusson said. "So when Dave pops on your social feed saying, 'I want to be Marcus Fenix' you've got to pay attention to that."

"The fact that Dave sort of says, 'It's a role I'm born to play as Marcus Fenix,' and then all the fans are sort of saying, 'Are you listening to this? We want this, we want this, we want this!' I wish I had control in casting the movie, but what I can control is who's in the game," he added.