Dave Bautista Held a Meeting with Warner Bros. to Tell the Studio He’s Going to Play Bane
Zack Sharf
Dave Bautista has made it clear on social media over the last several years that one of his dream movie roles is the Batman villain Bane, but the wrestling icon turned action movie star doesn’t just talk the talk. During an appearance at JusticeCon (via Collider) to promote his leading role in Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead,” Bautista revealed he organized a meeting with Warner Bros. and DC Films to more or less demand the role of Bane whenever the studios decide to revive the villain character on the big screen.
“I want to play Bane so bad I went to Warner Bros., had an appointment with them, had an appointment with DC, walked in the door and said, ‘I want to play Bane,'” Bautista said. “I’m not kidding. They were a little like. ‘Woah, we’re not even casting Bane.’ I was like ‘I don’t care, I’m playing him.'”
Bautista might have to wait a while before Warner Bros. decides to bring Bane back to the big screen. The character was famously played by Tom Hardy in Christopher Nolan’s 2012 comic book tentpole “The Dark Knight Rises,” and it’s a performance that continues to draw headlines all these years later (see Nolan saying last year that critics did not appreciate Hardy’s performance enough). Would Warner Bros. revive Bane with Hardy’s work still lingering in the minds of moviegoers? There was a 15-year gap between Robert Swenson playing Bane in “Batman & Robin” and Hardy playing Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Given that Warner Bros. and DC Films is about to embrace the multiverse, it’s entirely possible Bautista could get his chance to play Bane sooner rather than later. The upcoming “Flash” movie will star two versions of Batman, one played by Michael Keaton and the other by Ben Affleck. There’s also Robert Pattinson’s “The Batman” launching in March 2022 from director Matt Reeves. The filmmaker is bringing new iterations of Penguin (Colin Farrell), Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), and Riddler (Paul Dano) to the screen, which certainly leaves a door open for Bane popping up in the sequel. Bautista is surely hoping for it.
Next up for Bautista is “Army of the Dead,” the Netflix zombie tentpole from Zack Snyder. The film is hitting the streaming platform on May 22.
