Dave Bautista is cool with Disney now, but he doesn't regret standing by James Gunn
When Disney fired James Gunn from Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 last year, several of the filmmaker’s friends and peers were quick to come to his defense—but perhaps no voice was louder than that of Dave Bautista, the former wrestler who plays Drax in the MCU. Along with the rest of the Guardians cast, Bautista was very outspoken about his desire for Disney to re-hire Gunn, who had been dismissed when some of his old offensive tweets resurfaced. Bautista went so far as to threaten to exit the franchise if Disney didn’t reinstate Gunn—which they eventually did back in March.
Now that everything is back on track with Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, Bautista is opening up about the situation, telling Pro Wrestling Sheet that things are once again “good” between him and Marvel. Though Bautista says he’s “never actually talked to anybody from Disney,” he found the people at Marvel to be “understanding” of his support for Gunn. “I got people who are very understanding of where I stood,” says Bautista. “A lot of them just weren’t outspoken about it. And I just happened to be very outspoken about the way I felt.”
Bautista also offered a sweet explanation about what drove him to be so outspoken in his defense of Gunn:
James [Gunn] is my friend. I love him. He helped change my life and I know he’s a decent person. He was being attacked. And what do you do when your friends are being attacked? You defend them, or you’re not really a friend.
Aww, you guys.