As Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel’s latest superhero series, picks up steam, it’s beginning to shape up a cast. First Christ Pratt signed on as the lead, and now WWE wrestler David Bautista has been cast.
After a string of direct-to-DVD films, Bautista made his big-screen debut last year in The Man with the Iron Fists, in which he did the perfectly adequate job of playing a heavy, intimidating henchman. In this film, he’ll again be playing a heavy: Drax the Destroyer. Drax is a big green alien dude with superhuman strength and durability. He has a personal grudge against Thanos (that purple dude who showed up in the end credits of The Avengers), who killed his family, and has clashed with him in the comics many times over the years.
Bautista beat out several other possibilities for the role. Marvel wanted Game of Throne‘s Jason Momoa, but Momoa turned them down. After that, names like Isaiah Mustafa and Patrick Wade circulated. Personally, I’d have loved for Mustafa to do it (because he’s awesome), but we’ll see how Bautista handles it.
Guardians of the Galaxy is set to come out August 1st, 2014.
