The Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t expected to make a concerted shift into R-rated territory, with Deadpool 3 looking to be the sole exception that proves the rule, but James Gunn is adamant that it’ll happen eventually. Based on what the filmmaker brought to The Suicide Squad, you’d imagine he’d be at the top of the list were Kevin Feige to take the plunge on a regular basis.
Instead, it looks as though Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 may very well mark the end of the line between Gunn and Marvel Studios, and at the very least it’s the swansong for Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer. The 52 year-old admitted that he’s aging out of the role, and he’s hardly been shy in voicing his displeasure with having to sit in the makeup chair for hours every day.
“I could go off and make a Drax movie that’s R-rated, that I would love to do, like barbarian Drax. But the movies are fables, and I don’t think of them like that. I don’t write them like that. It’s a different type of movie, and you can have some gore and some scary darkness in there and things like that, which is good, but it’s not the rock and roll of Suicide Squad.”
However, in a new interview, Gunn revealed the R-rated MCU project he’d love to make a reality, and it’s exactly the sort of thing that would no doubt be able to tempt Bautista to end his self-imposed retirement from the superhero business given the deep respect and friendship between the two.
The former WWE star feels that Marvel dropped the ball on Drax’s character arc, which he knows was partly his own fault after he displayed some hitherto unseen comic timing in Guardians of the Galaxy, reducing the vengeful destroyer to little more than an oblivious quip machine. It’s wishful thinking on everyone’s part given the sheer number of circumstances working against it, but nobody’s going to deny that seeing Bautista headlining a violent and very R-rated solo film about Drax’s quest for revenge would be a sight to behold.