What If...? executive producer Brad Winderbaum has addressed Dave Bautista's absence from the animated series.
Recently, when a Twitter user inquired why he wasn't voicing Drax the Destroyer on the show, Bautista said he was "never asked" to begin with. “I saw that, too,” Winderbaum told Variety.
“It’s my understanding that everybody was asked in some way, shape or form, either through their agents or directly," he explained. "I don’t know really what happened behind the scenes there, but certainly, we would have loved for [Bautista] to be in the show. So there’s probably some miscommunication somewhere.”
Bautista is one of several Marvel Cinematic Universe movie actors not reprising their roles for the animated What If...? series, along with Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America) and Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man). “Part of it, I think, was literally the schedule -- maybe. I mean, I don’t know,” Winderbaum admitted. “We didn’t push that hard.”
Inspired by the Marvel comic book anthology launched in 1977, What If...? explores alternate timelines where key events in MCU history played out differently. For example, the first episode takes place in a reality where Peggy Carter becomes The First Avenger after taking the Super Soldier Serum, transforming her into Captain Carter. An upcoming episode similarly centers on T'Challa being picked up by the Ravagers and becoming Star-Lord, bringing him face to face with non-Earthlings like Howard the Duck and Drax.
After debuting as Drax in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy, Bautista reprised the character for 2017's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, as well as 2018's Avengers: Infinity War and 2019's Avengers: Endgame. He's currently gearing up to play Drax for, most likely, the final time in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, with writer/director James Gunn once again calling the shots in his MCU swan song.
Bautista is also reprising Drax for the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, as well as The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special that Gunn is developing for Disney+. The latter begins streaming in late 2022, with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 reaching theaters on May 5, 2023. Meanwhile, new episodes of What If...? Season 1 premiere Wednesdays on Disney+, with Season 2 already in the works for a 2022 release.
Source: Variety
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