Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 star Dave Bautista has spoken about the prospect of playing a new take on Bane several times in the past, and revealed that he actually took his campaign to be cast as the villain directly to Warner Bros. in a 2021 interview.
While being interviewed for Justice Con alongside his Army of The Dead director Zack Snyder, the former WWE Champion was asked which DC Comics character he'd most like to play if he had the opportunity.
"It would be Bane, all day. It is no secret," he replied. "I really want to play Bane. I want to play Bane so much that I went to Warner Bros., had a meeting with them, had a meeting with DC, walked through the door and said, 'I want to play Bane. I'm not kidding. They said, 'Wow, wow. We're not even looking for anyone for Bane.'"
There have been a lot of changes at WB since then, and Bautista's friend and GOTG director James Gunn is now calling the shots as co-CEO of DC Studios.
Gunn recently revealed that he would "love" to work with Bautista again in the DCU, asking fans to send their character suggestions to Threads. The most popular picks included Hugo Strange, Darkseid, Kilowog, Mr. Freeze, Atrocitus, and, of course, Bane.
Bautista followed-up by sharing the following Bane fan-art to his Instagram.
Is the actor hinting that he's had discussions about playing the Batman villain, or is he simply trying to gain some support from his followers?
The only DCU Batman project currently in the works (that we know of) is The Brave and The Bold. We haven't heard any rumors about Bane being involved, but the character could quite easily be introduced as a physical threat for the Dark Knight and his son.
Along with a new take on the Caped Crusader, The Brave and the Bold will introduce a very different Robin in the form of Damian Wayne, a "murderous tween raised by assassins who also happens to be the son Batman never knew he had."
The Flash director Andy Muschietti is expected to take the helm, although a recent rumor claimed that he is now "off" the project. We don't have anything concrete, but taking The Flash's box office performance into account, we'd say it's a distinct possibility.
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