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What’s the story?
In an interview with ShortList, former WWE Superstar Dave Batista addressed the James Gunn controversy.
Apparently, Batista has doubled down on his criticism of the production house, Disney—and condemned Gunn’s sudden removal from the Marvel project “Guardians of the Galaxy”.
In case you didn’t know…
Batista (real name—Dave Bautista) rose to prominence owing to his work in the WWE—a promotion in which he was portrayed as one of the two top Superstars of the Ruthless Aggression Era alongside John Cena.
Over the past few years, Batista has notably ascended toward the top of the Hollywood realm—with his acting skills being accorded a ton of praise by both fans and critics alike.
The heart of the matter
Film pundits note that Batista truly broke through as a bona fide Hollywood A-Lister with his role as Drax The Destroyer in the Marvel Universe movie series “Guardians of the Galaxy”.
Batista has reprised the aforementioned role in both the Vol. 1 (2014) and Vol. 2 (2017) of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie franchise—besides currently being scheduled to essay the role in Vol. 3 (scheduled for 2020) as well.
The highly-popular movie series is produced by media giants Disney, who have found themselves in the eye of the storm owing to a recent social media uproar concerning Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn.
Apparently, tweets sent out by Gunn about a decade ago were brought to the forefront on the internet—with the mainstream media then according a considerable amount of coverage to Gunn’s tweets, in which he is said to have allegedly joked about pedophilia.
While Disney subsequently fired Gunn from his directorial position, Batista has come out in support of his good friend. “The Animal” condemned Disney’s firing of Gunn, and stated—
"Nobody's defending his tweets, but this was a smear campaign on a good man…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**k this. This is bulls**t.' James is one of the kindest, most decent people I've met."
"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…I'd be doing James a disservice if I didn't."
What’s next?
Over the past several months, Batista has asserted that he intends to return to WWE for one last run before he retires from professional wrestling.
Presently, Batista is still very much a part of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 cast.
However, Hollywood experts believe that Batista may be risking his spot in the Marvel Universe by strongly expressing his condemnation regarding Disney’s firing of James Gunn.
What are your thoughts on Batista speaking out against the worldwide media giant that is Disney? Sound off in the comments!
