Drax Is Going To Be Seriously Badass In Guardians Of The Galaxy 2, According To Dave Bautista

James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has a lot of material to use to build on its central characters, with Peter Quill on the road to finding his dad, Gamora having to deal with her rogue half-sister Nebula, Groot growing back to full size, and Rocket continuing to sand down his harder edges. But what does the future hold for Drax? According to actor Dave Bautista, we’re going to see a nice focus on making him a total badass.

This past weekend I flew down to Mexico City to talk with the cast of the new James Bond film Spectre, and it was while sitting down one-on-one with Bautista that he gave me the run-down on what we should expect from Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. He admitted that he has not actually had the chance to read the screenplay for the sequel yet, but that he has had talks with its writer/director about where they want to take the character. Said the actor,

I haven’t read the script, and I’m being completely honest when I say that, but I think, having talked to James [Gunn] about the film, I know he’s… I hate to give any spoilers, but I know he’s really going to focus on Drax being a badass. He’s still not really going to get metaphors, even though he thinks he does, but he’ll still be that very literal Drax, but I think you’re going to see a lot more badass Drax.

I had asked Bautista about how Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 would move forward with Drax after the end of the last film saw him swearing vengeance against Thanos for murdering his wife and daughter. Ultimately he didn’t really comment on whether or not we would see The Destroyer go head-to-head with the Mad Titan, but he did express his thoughts about his hopeful direction for the Guardians of the Galaxy movies:

As far as the storyline as a whole, I honestly don’t know, and if I did know obviously I wouldn’t tell you, but I hope they’ll continue on with that path, and – fingers crossed as a fan – I hope that it will tie in with The Avengers somewhere down the road. I’ve only heard rumors, but I’m being honest, and I’ve been honest in the past, I hope that it ends up there because I would love to go there.

You can watch the Guardians of the Galaxy-related clip from my Dave Bautista interview below:

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is going to be heading into production in the first half of next year, and is currently set for release on May 5, 2017. You’ll be able to see Dave Bautista back in theaters this weekend, however, as Spectre is coming out this Friday, November 6th.

Eric Eisenberg
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Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.