Dave Bautista was not happy when Disney announced the removal of director James Gunn from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise last year. He recently spoke to Variety about his feelings now that the director has been reinstated to work on the franchise.
“I just spoke my mind and was honest about the way I felt about it. I thought he was given a raw deal, I thought it was a bad call, bad decision,” Bautista said.
Disney fired the director last year after old Tweets featuring insensitive remarks from Gunn surfaced. Not long after Gunn was removed from the film, Bautista had the following to say:
“I will have more to say but for right now all I will say is this.. @JamesGunn is one of the most loving, caring, good natured people I have ever met. He’s gentle and kind and cares deeply for people and animals. He’s made mistakes. We all have. I’m NOT ok with what’s happening to him.”
Dave Bautista – Guardians of the Galaxy Franchise
Bautista and others involved in the film alluded to not wanting to work on a 3rd Guardians of the Galaxy film if Gunn was not involved. Disney then announced last month they had decided to hire Gunn back.
Although he is contractually committed to working on a 3rd Guardians of the Galaxy film, Bautista feels Disney would have let him out of his contract if he had pushed the issue.
“I am contractually obligated [to do the third movie], but I think that Marvel and Disney –– if I had really stood my ground and said, ‘I don’t want to do this without James’ –– I think that they are decent enough that they would’ve let me out of my contract,” he said.
Even if he wasn’t brought back as director, Bautista wanted to ensure Gunn’s script was used for the 3rd movie.
“I wanted to bring it home. These guys are like family to me and I wanted to be involved in the third one,” Bautista said. “I wanted to use James’ script because it’s a beautiful script. Moving forward without James was a real personal issue with me.”
The full interview with Variety can be read here.
It seems as though both Triple H and Disney are learning that it’s best to just give Batista what he wants.
