Of all the cast members of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Dave Bautista has been one of the most outspoken when it comes to the firing of director James Gunn. The filmmaker was ousted by Disney over the emergence of historic offensive joke posts on his Twitter account, putting the third Guardians film on hold – and following Bautista’s frequent disgruntled tweets){href='(https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/dave-bautista-says-guardians-galaxy-without-james-gunn-guardians/)' } about Gunn’s firing, the actor has thrown his future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe into question. While the entire film is on hold, if production does kick back into gear it's not certain whether Drax the Destroyer will be back.
Speaking on the Jonathan Ross Show, Bautista told the presenter: “It’s a bitter-sweet conversation. Um, no it’s a bitter-bitter conversation because I’m not really happy with what they’ve done with James Gunn. They’re putting the movie off. It’s on hold indefinitely. To be honest with you I don’t know if I want to work for Disney.”
Following a fan campaign calling for his reinstatement and a group statement from the Guardians cast showing support for Gunn, Disney boss Alan Horn reportedly met with Gunn to “clear the air” – but reiterated that the director wouldn’t be re-hired. It was previously thought that Disney would hire an alternative director and use Gunn’s completed Guardians 3 screenplay, with possible rewrites, but with Marvel Studios not yet having announced the Phase 4 slate of the MCU, the future of the Guardians as a whole remains very much in question. INFINITY WAR SPOILER WARNING. Following Thanos’ attack, Drax is one of the characters currently consigned to the dust – so the possibility remains that he could well be written out of future MCU instalments.
Either way, it sounds like there's plenty more patching up to be done before the Guardians regroup.
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