In a recent interview to promote Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, actor Dave Bautista expressed some feelings about the missed opportunities for his character Drax the Destroyer when Marvel chose to make him more of a comedic character.

"That role changed the trajectory of my life. It's always going to be special to me," Bautista told Collider. "Now that I’m four films in...I really wished they would have invested more in Drax, personally. Because I think Drax has more of a story to tell. I think Drax has a really interesting backstory which they dropped the ball on. That’s no dig on Marvel. They had their slate, I know what they’re focused on, that’s what they have slated out. But man, I think they really missed the ball on Drax. He has such a great backstory."

Related: Dave Bautista Discusses Whether He Wants a Drax Disney+ Show

"Selfishly, as a performer, that would have given me the opportunity to show different sides of Drax, emotionally. And physically as well. Because, if you notice, Drax, although he looks like a badass, you look at him and he looks terrifying, but Drax gets his ass kicked more than any other Marvel character...The whole 'Destroyer' thing they just threw that out the window... people just fell so in love with the comedic side of Drax they tapped into that, then they tapped into it more, then they really dug a hole into it. But we missed a huge boat on that character and I don’t think it’ll ever come back around. But I’m really just looking forward to finishing out this whole journey."

Bautista also spoke at length about the impact the Guardians franchise has had on the current generation of movie fans and its possible place in the pantheon of space operas as he says goodbye to playing Drax.

"That’s a full journey. We started together, not a lot of people, unless you were seriously into comics, even knew who the Guardians were. People were speculating, oh, a professional wrestler is playing Drax, is this gonna be the first Marvel movie to flop? It was a lot of that out until the film came out and people fell in love with it. These are not my words, I don’t want to get beaten up for this, but I’ve heard people say this is like the new Star Wars. People are going to look back on Guardians the way our generation looks back on Star Wars. Someone saying that, like that’s a bold statement. That hits me. It’s yet to be seen, but if I can have somebody feeling that way about Guardians the way I feel and look back on Star Wars, that’s a life worth living. That’s a legacy, man. I’m really excited to wrap up this whole journey with these guys. I love them. I love the Guardians cast like family. They know it. I think everybody knows that I’m pretty vocal about it."

Written and directed by James Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is set to begin filming this year and hit theaters on May 5, 2023.

Related: Dave Bautista Says Someone Else Could Play Drax Once He's Done

Source: Collider