Dave Bautista Says He’ll Never Return to Drax Just to Collect a Marvel Paycheck: It Would ‘Tarnish’ a ‘Perfect’ Exit

Dave Bautista really, really means it when he says “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” will be his final outing as Drax the Destroyer. During a recent visit on “The Tonight Show,” the actor stuck to his guns about exiting the Marvel Cinematic Universe and questioned why it’s still news at this point.

“Yeah, it’s weird. I don’t know why it’s news,” Bautista said. “This is my seventh film as Drax. And my third ‘Guardians’ [movie]. It was like our trilogy. That’s kind of what we all signed up for, to do a trilogy. And I think this will be the last version of our ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’”

For Bautista, writer-director James Gunn has crafted the “perfect exit” for his character. It’s so perfect in fact that Bautista said coming back to Marvel as Drax would “tarnish” the character. Not even a big Marvel paycheck would warrant ruining Drax’s perfect ending.

“We all had those perfect character arcs and such a storybook ending,” Bautista said. “I constantly relate it to the way I ended my wrestling career. I ended it on a storybook note. And I would never go back and tarnish that. And it’s the same with this.”

“With Drax, I just got to end the perfect way,” he added. “And I would never sign up for another job as Drax just to get a paycheck. I would tarnish that [perfect ending], and I won’t do it.”

Bautista told GQ magazine in January that he was excited to leave Drax behind and start flexing more mature acting muscles. As the actor put it: “It wasn’t all pleasant. It was hard playing that role. The makeup process was beating me down. And I just don’t know if I want Drax to be my legacy — it’s a silly performance, and I want to do more dramatic stuff.” 

Next up for Bautista is M. Night Shyamalan’s “Knock at the Cabin” (in theaters Feb. 3 from Universal Pictures) and an expanded supporting role in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune Part II” (in theaters Nov. 3 from Warner Bros.).