Earlier this morning, we published an article confirming that Dave Bautista will indeed be returning for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, even though he says the idea of working for Disney is now “nauseating.” The former wrestler-turned-action-movie-superstar said as much in a damning tweet about his Disney employers, which you can read for yourself below:
Now, while speaking with Shortlist about his upcoming film FINAL SCORE, the box office behemoth has issued the following threat related to Gunn's participation for the third installment of Marvel's space-treking trilogy.
“Nobody’s defending his tweets, but this was a smear campaign on a good man,” he said, speaking to ShortList’s Tom Ellen. “I spoke to Chris Pratt the day after it happened and he’s a bit religious so he wanted time to pray and figure it out, but I was more like: f*ck this. This is bullshit. James is one of the kindest, most decent people I’ve met.”
While the above statement falls directly in line with Bautista's previous statements on the matter, it's this next part that is likely to give Disney a bout of pause.
“Where I’m at right now is that if [Marvel] don’t use that script, then I’m going to ask them to release me from my contract, cut me out or recast me," Bautista declared. “I’d be doing James a disservice if I didn’t,” the Drax actor then added.
For the moment, Marvel has set a tentative 2020 release for the Guardians sequel, though with Gunn out as the film's director and no replacement yet to be named, that date could be pushed back. Couple that mad dash with the concept of Bautista breaking his contract if Gunn's script isn't used and you've got a recipe for disaster. After all, finding a new director is going to be tough enough. If you add replacing Bautista to the mix, that's going to set the film back even more. It's quite the conundrum the studio has on their hands. My advice is to buckle up, kids, because I think we're all in for a very bumpy ride.
GUARADIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 will arrive in theaters … well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?
Let us know what you think of all this mess in the comments section below.