Dave Bautista wants to play Batman villain Bane. That’s no secret. He’s dropped hints for years. Back in April 2019, when John Cena was initially reported to be joining James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad relaunch, Collider reported that Gunn wanted to cast Bautista, but obviously, none of the film’s promotion has actually suggested that Bane is making some sort of surprise appearance, and in January 2021, Bautista told Entertainment Weekly that he turned down The Suicide Squad (the role in question isn’t clarified) to star in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead for Netflix.
Still, Bautista has been fanning the Bane flames for years, and apparently Twitter-campaigned for the role in 2018. His obsession has been so great that, as flagged by Collider, Bautista declared at last weekend’s Justice Con that he essentially demanded the role during a Warner Bros. meeting, and they weren’t even casting Bane:
“Oh, it would be Bane all day long. I’ve made no secret about this. I want to play Bane so bad I went to Warner Bros., had an appointment with them, had an appointment with DC, walked in the door and said, ‘I want to play Bane.’ I’m not kidding. They were a little like ‘Woah, we’re not even casting Bane.’ I was like ‘I don’t care, I’m playing him.'”
Hey, there’s nothing wrong with putting one’s desires out into the universe. Manifesting, if you will. And you never know, Bane could surface in some other reboot, relaunch, or reimagining, and Bautista could put his own spin on the role that was embodied by Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises. Until then, he’s still Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy, which ain’t too shabby.
(Via Collider)
