Dave Bautista has made no secret of his desire to take on the role of Batman villain Bane, with the Guardians of the Galaxy star revealing on numerous occasions that he’s previously pitched that very idea to Warner Bros. and DC Films without success.
Speaking to THR during the promotional rounds for his new film Army of the Dead, Bautista has now offered some details on what went down during his meeting with the studio:
“I had a meeting with DC at Warner Bros. It was kind of a general meeting about what their slate was, and I said, ‘I want to know what’s going on with Bane and whether you guys have any plans for Bane. I want to play Bane. I think I’d do the character justice. I think people want to see Bane and I think it’s a really interesting character. I’d like to shed a different light on the character.’ And they said, ‘We don’t have plans for that And I was like, ‘Ah, okay.’ So I was mentioned for a couple other parts, but they were shot down, not by myself, for one reason or another. And then life moves on.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with Collider, Bautista then went on to discuss his thoughts on the character of Bane, and what he believes he’d bring to the role:
“No discredit to Tom Hardy’s version of Bane, I love that performance, I loved that film. I’d just love a crack at it. I think I could bring an interesting twist to it and I think I could do the character justice. Not only in performance, but also in physicality. I’d love that role where I’d have to go back up to 320 pounds just to play this character, like that it would happen I could play Bane in a way that’s not only menacing and ominous but also freakishly intelligent. Bane would be the type of character that’s so menacing and so terrifying and so intelligent, he would hardly ever raise his voice.
“[Bane] would not only be physically superior, he’d be mentally superior. I love the idea of the challenge of playing that character. I like when you can play a brute who’s not your predictable brute. Any big muscular guy can play the guy who is screaming, and growling, and yelling. But if you play a guy who is not only physically menacing but also soft-spoken, and even more terrifying when he’s speaking to you softly with a smile on his face, then that is a villain.”
SEE ALSO: Dave Bautista thinks Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be his final outing as Drax
At this point, it seems unlikely that Bautista will get his wish to play Bane, but let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth if you’d like to see the former WWE Superstar taking on the role of the Man Who Broke the Bat…
Originally published May 18, 2021. Updated May 17, 2021.
