It’s no secret that Dave Bautista (who plays Drax the Destroyer in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies) is completely against Disney Studio’s decision to axe the highly discussed James Gunn from the third installment, inevitably preventing him from completing his trilogy. That, I understand from Bautista’s point of view.
But wait, there’s more!
In recent weeks, Bautista has effectively thrown his toys out of the pram and has completely thrown shade at Disney for sacking Gunn (who, a couple of months ago, deleted A LOT of obscene tweets that stirred huge amounts of controversy in the social media world).
If you’ve been living under a rock or your Internet has been cut off over the summer, Drax has been tweeting a few hateful comments aimed towards the company that pulled the plug on James Gunn getting his hands on the Guardians once more.
Here is a list of things that Bautista has done to probably try and get himself fired, or as this article clearly points out — go on a one-man mission to destroy his MCU career (pun well and clearly intended):
July 21: First (of many) tweets about his first reaction to the Gunn controversy in which he mentions how he is “NOT ok with what’s happening to him [James Gunn]”.
I will have more to say but for right now all I will say is this..@JamesGunn is one of the most loving,caring,good natured people I have ever met. He’s gentle and kind and cares deeply for people and animals. He’s made mistakes. We all have. Im NOT ok with what’s happening to him
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) July 21, 2018
July 22: Tweets again to what is a clearly VERY angry response from the retired wrestler saying how James Gunn should be redeemed and Disney executives are “cybernazis”.
What will you do when the #cybernazis attack you? Who will stand by you? Who will cowardly distance themselves from you? Who will punish you for horrible JOKES in the past instead of defending you for INSPIRING millions? MILLIONS!!! #Redemption #injustice @JamesGunn
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) July 22, 2018
July 23: A busy few days for Bautista on Twitter! He tweets to an article that talks about how “Gunn’s firing exposes double standards & danger in punishing the past.” His tweet simply says how this article from GeekDads is “an amazing article.”
PLEASE READ! This is an amazing article. Thank you @GeekDads https://t.co/WlexfdJRaC
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) July 23, 2018
July 23: Dave retweets numerous articles and headlines from RadioTimes and Vulture that defends James Gunn.
July 26: Responds to the Hollywood Reporter‘s article on the controversy surrounding James Gunn and how it hurts Hollywood.
And then some! Never make a mistake! Don’t have a sense of humor! Don’t be politically outspoken! Etc, fucking etc!!! https://t.co/WDfuvl9qGD
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) July 25, 2018
So far, Bautista has tweeted his hatred towards Disney’s decision to fire Gunn and has caused many others to either go out and support Dave’s views or to tell him “Stop it! You are only making things worse!”
While it’s understandable how much he is against Disney’s actions, I think at this point it’s slightly crossing the line. He’s made his point already (as has many of the other cast members have handled Gunn’s controversy a lot better than Bautista) and he should just stop now. He doesn’t.
And now, Part 2 of the Dave Bautista / James Gunn dispute:
July 30: He tweets out a picture of a letter from all the Guardians with #WeAreGroot.
#IStandWithJamesGunn #RehireJamesGunn #WeAreGroot pic.twitter.com/w3uh61hd78
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) July 30, 2018
July 30: This is when he probably crosses the line for good. He tweets out a petition to reinstate James Gunn. What is it with movies and petitions, nowadays?
PETITION INCLUDED article! Chris Pratt, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Cast Call for Reinstatement of James Gunn https://t.co/KVyc0OqoTJ via @thr
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) July 30, 2018
August 3: He posts an article from Observer about “The Incredibly Irony of James Gunn’s ‘Guardians’ firing.”
The Incredible Irony of James Gunn’s ‘Guardians’ Firing https://t.co/HR19UrTfS0 irony/bullshit.
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) August 3, 2018
August 5: Remember that line Bautista crossed? He probably can’t even see it any more. He quote tweets @eliaseliot tweet asking Drax if he has “any plans or response if Disney don’t reinstate him [Gunn] for GotG3?”. Bautista’s juicy response very interestingly says how “nauseating” it is to work for Disney. And then he reissues “Cybernazis.”
I will do what Im legally obligated to do but @Guardians without @JamesGunn is not what I signed up for. GOTG w/o @JamesGunn 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 https://t.co/Ym4FwruVDu
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) August 5, 2018
August 17: He sarcastically tweets at Disney with a ScreenRant article embedded how firing Gunn is a big mistake. Too far, Dave. Too far.
Thanks @Disney !! Making America great again! 🇺🇸 https://t.co/t6A4030xkS
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) August 17, 2018
August 18: He uses the same article to enthusiastically and passionately talk about how “brilliant” the article is. If Dave Bautista could see this article now.
I love this article so much I’m just going to tweet again. I’ll probably tweet tomorrow as well. Just in case! Just want to make sure everyone gets a chance to read ii because its brilliant! https://t.co/FZWdgNwxTl
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) August 18, 2018
August 31: He talks about in an interview for his latest movie Final Score. In it, Dave shares the most important quality for the replacement Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director must have is ‘loyalty to the characters James Gunn has created’.
Exclusive: @davebautista thinks the most important quality for the replacement #GuardiansoftheGalaxy Vol.3 director is ‘loyalty to the characters that James Gunn created’ pic.twitter.com/fV0dfExxg3
— FANDOM (@getFANDOM) August 31, 2018
(It says a lot that I had to split this timeline into two parts.)
September 1: Following what was pretty much a busy summer for Bautista, he cast doubt on his return to play “The Invisible throughout Infinity War” character.
Just a Drax joke, everybody.
And if that’s enough to get you talking about him, this next thing will: Article-after-article were stories how Bautista kept on spoiling Avengers 4.
Dave Bautista dropped some spoilers about the future of the Marvel heroes. https://t.co/SsrqkFQnzO
— Esquire (@esquire) September 4, 2018
Dave, that job goes to Tom Holland, Mark Ruffalo, and Sebastian Stan.
Not only did his latest actions get me writing an article about him but it got Twitter user, Matt (one of the victims of “Bautista Blocks” on Twitter and friend of the Matrix) tweeting about the fact Dave Bautista was revealing Avengers 4 spoilers.
And people wonder why I don’t like Dave Bautista at all. Forget about him threatening to quit and talking shit about Disney. He’s revealing spoilers now for Avengers 4 just because of James Gunn being fired. You’re acting like a child now and it’s just sad. pic.twitter.com/YI8adIcEa3
— Matt 🇳🇴 (@thcfastestman) September 3, 2018
What’s wrong with him?!
The retired wrestler even went to great lengths to try and reinstate Gunn. Additionally, if Disney wouldn’t bring back the director, Dave threatened to leave and drop out of GOTG 3. I guess, he hasn’t seen what Marvel/Disney have done previously when it comes to recasting. (*coughs* Terrence Howard and Edward Norton*)
If Dave Bautista sticks by his word and actually leaves his role as Drax then I’m sure Marvel/Disney will find a suitable replacement for the actor. It worked for their previous recasts of War Machine and The Incredible Hulk. Fan-casts are on standby.
Also, I think the fact that Dave Bautista is going to great lengths (i.e., tweeting out petitions, threatening to leave and ruining Avengers 4) to defend his friend is quite admirable and shows his gratefulness and loyalty to the former GOTG director, who gave him the opportunity to work with Robert Downey Jr, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and many more top stars.
That said, his comments aimed at Disney and revealing Avengers 4 spoilers is quite childish. And possibly bounds for a big lawsuit. They take their contracts seriously — of which, Dave is under a big one.
While I am not a big fan of the way he has reacted to Gunn’s firing and the controversy surrounding the director, I do have some respect to the great lengths he has gone in order to try and defend (and support) his friend.
But, as they say, with friends like that… who needs enemies?!
(You’re Writing is very eloquent, Will.) I guess I don’t like Dave because I don’t respect James Gunn at all. In hindsight, the fact that Bautista continues to lower himself to such standards unbecoming of a resume that includes actor, retired professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and bodybuilder is what eludes me because he’s still whining. He didn’t get invited to the SmackDown 1000 and tweeted about that. Quote – “Surprise surprise!! I wasn’t invited! And it’s in my hometown.! 😳.. guess by now I shouldn’t be shocked anymore.” Dave Bautista 22 hrs ago
Lost Cause!! Cast a New Drax Please!!