Dave Bautista Clears Up Previous Threat To Leave ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Over James Gunn Firing

During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Dave Bautista set the record straight regarding his threat to leave the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise following Disney’s decision to fire director James Gunn.

After alt-right commentators unearthed offensive jokes James Gunn posted on social media years ago, Disney fired the filmmaker from the third Guardians of the Galaxy film and the cast of the franchise quickly rushed to the defense of the director. Of course, none were as vocal as Dave Bautista, who went as far as saying he would ask to be released from his contract if Disney did not reconsider their decision to fire James Gunn. Now, Dave Bautista explained that he was not threatening to leave the Guardians of the Galaxy film series in favor of The Suicide Squad (the project James Gunn landed months after his firing), but that he was not concerned about potentially being fired himself for standing by Gunn and telling Disney he believes they erred in removing the filmmaker from the project:

“No, it wasn’t that I was going to jump ship and do Suicide Squad. I was more at the point where I was like, ‘Fire me. I don’t care. You’re going to hear what I have to say.’ And this is the way I feel and I think you made a bad call and I don’t care if you fire me because I feel this way. This is me being honest and me sticking up for my friend who was wronged. So that was it. It wasn’t about me — I’m not threatening to go do Suicide Squad, but I was just saying, ‘If things aren’t here, I’m just going to leave. I don’t want to be a part of this.'”

While production on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was scheduled to begin early this year, the project was put on hold following the decision to remove Gunn as the director of the final chapter in the trilogy. Now, James Gunn will begin production on the third Guardians of the Galaxy film after completing work on The Suicide Squad for Warner Bros. and DC. Details on the third and final chapter of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy are currently unknown, though the film will likely explore the ramifications of the universe-changing events in Avengers: Endgame.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is expected to star Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, and Sean Gunn.

Stay tuned to Heroic Hollywood for the latest updates on James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Source: Entertainment Tonight