Dave Bautista

Dave Bautista (birthname: David Michael Bautista Jr.) is a former World Champion pro wrestler who has successfully transformed himself into a popular actor, particularly as Drax the Destroyer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog cast Bautista in his first movie role as a cop in the remarkable U.S.-based drama, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? (2009), starring Michael Shannon. After his first starring role in a direct-to-video movie, Wrong Side of Town (2010), Bautista starred in the action movie, House of the Rising Sun (2011), with Amy Smart and Danny Trejo.

Bautista’s first role in a major Hollywood franchise was in the direct-to-video The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (2012), followed by a supporting role in the Quentin Tarantino-presented and RZA-written-and-directed martial arts movie, The Man with the Iron Fists (2012), starring Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, RZA, and Rick Yune, but failing to score a profit on a $15 million budget. Dave Bautista’s first of several sci-fi action movies was in a supporting role in writer-director David Twohy’s Riddick (2013), with Vin Diesel, earning ($98.3 million) nearly three times its costs ($38 million).

Bautista enjoyed his breakout role as Drax in writer-director James Gunn’s MCU comedy-adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), with Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Diesel, Bradley Cooper, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Benicio del Toro, and grossing a strong $773.3 million globally. Bautista co-starred in the little-seen slasher comedy, L.A. Slasher (2015) from writer-director Martin Owen and with Mischa Barton, Eric Roberts, and Danny Trejo, followed by a small role in the Sam Mendes-directed Bond movie, Spectre (2015), starring Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, and Ralph Fiennes, and earning $881 million worldwide.

Dave Bautista gained a name-above-title and face-on-poster alongside co-star Robert De Niro in the heist movie, Heist (2015), with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kate Bosworth, and Morris Chestnut, but which lost money with a weak $4 million return. Bautista led a cast full of MMA players in the commercially failed martial arts movie, Kickboxer: Vengeance (2016), with Jean-Claude Van Damme, followed by a co-starring role—with Christopher Meloni and Bruce Willis—in the crime movie, Marauders (2016), earning a mere $1 million for Lionsgate. After the Chinese-French direct-to-video action-fantasy, The Warriors Gate (2016), Bautista was the star and executive producer for the little-seen thriller, Bushwick (2017), co-starring Brittany Snow, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.

Dave Bautista returned as Drax in writer-director James Gunn’s hit sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), reuniting the original cast with new entries Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone, and grossing a dazzling $863.8 million. Director Denis Villeneuve cast Bautista in a supporting role in Blade Runner 2049 (2017), with Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Robin Wright, and Jared Leto, though it failed to gain a profit with a sub-par $267.5 million return. Bautista’s first non-Guardians MCU movie was Avengers: Infinity War (2018), becoming the fourth highest-grossing movie in history with a $2.05 billion global gross.

Bautista joined Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, and Brian Tyree Henry in the box-office failure of writer-director Drew Pearce, Hotel Artemis (2018), followed a co-starring turn opposite Sylvester Stallone in a direct-to-video action item (and theatrically released abroad), Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018). As producer-star, Bautista didn’t score a hit with the Russian-set thriller, Final Score (2018), with Pierce Brosnan and Ray Stevenson (only $1.5 million gross on a $20 million), and his next project, the Hong Kong-China martial arts actioner, Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018), with Michelle Yeoh and Tony Jaa, didn’t do much better with a global take under $20 million on a $28 million budget.

Once again, Dave Bautista appeared in the Infinity War companion movie (filmed at the same time but released a year later), Avengers: Endgame (2019), again directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and reaching an unprecedented global gross of $2.8 billion. Bautista displayed his comedy chops opposite Kumail Nanjiani in the Los Angeles buddy-cop movie, Stuber (2019), directed by Michael Dowse and earning a powerhouse $100.4 million gross for 20^th Century Fox. After the COVID-affected Amazon Prime Video movie in which Bautista starred and produced, My Spy (2020), Bautista starred in Zack Snyder’s much-delayed zombie heist movie, Army of the Dead (2021), which had a one-week theatrical window before streaming on Netflix.

Dave Bautista reunited with director Denis Villeneuve in the role of Glossu Rabban for the acclaimed sci-fi epic, Dune (2021), as well as the sequel, Dune: Part Two (2023), and then expanded his Drax character in the Taika Waititi-directed MCU sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), with Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Russell Crowe, and Natalie Portman, grossing $761 million worldwide. Bautista joined a different ensemble under Rian Johnson’s direction in the Netflix-released sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022), including Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., and Kate Hudson.

Bautista starred in M. Night Shyamalan’s apocalyptic drama, Knock at the Cabin (2023), with Rupert Grint and is projected to gross over $40 million globally. In 2023, Bautista appeared in two follow-up sequels, including Dune: Part Two and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, again written and directed by James Gunn. Bautista is the Peter Segal-directed My Spy: The Eternal City (2024) with Chloe Coleman, and then Bautista starred in the action movie, The Killer’s Game (2024), co-starring Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews, Pom Klementieff, and Ben Kingsley under J.J. Perry’s direction and released wide by Lionsgate.

Dave Bautista co-starred in the Gia Coppola-directed drama, The Last Showgirl (2024), starring Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, and Billie Lourd, and premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. Bautista then co-starred with Milla Jovovich in director/co-writer Paul W. S. Anderson’s fantasy-adventure, In the Lost Lands (2024), co-written with George R.R. Martin and Constantin Werner, with lead producer Constantin Film.

Bautista joined the cast of Avatar Studio’s debut feature, Aang: The Last Airbender (2025), with Eric Nam, Dionne Quan, and Jessica Matten under Lauren Montgomery’s direction and released by Paramount Pictures. Bautista led the cast of director Michael Dowse’s El Paso-based thriller, Trap House (date to be announced), produced in part by Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions and co-starring Jack Champion, Sophia Lillis, Kate del Castillo, Whitney Peak, and Bobby Cannavale.

Bautista then reunited with director J.J. Perry for the much-delayed post-apocalyptic drama, Afterburn (date to be announced), co-starring Samuel L. Jackson and Olga Kurylenko.