Dave Bautista Reportedly Passes On James Gunn's 'The Suicide Squad' Due To Scheduling

While it was widely believed that James Gunn had written the role of the DC character Peacemaker into his screenplay for ‘The Suicide Squad’ specifically for his ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ star Dave Bautista, it was not known that Bautista was actually in talks with Warner Brothers about taking the role.  Unfortunately, the timing just wasn’t right and Bautista had to pass.  He is currently filming Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’, and it was recently announced that he had signed on to star in Zack Snyder’s Netflix zombie movie ‘Army of the Dead’, so his calendar is booked pretty solid right now.

 

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It was just announced that fellow WWE superstar John Cena had entered discussions for a role in the film, and as it turns out, he is looking to land the role of The Peacemaker.

That is at least according to Variety reporter Justin Kroll, who tweeted:

John Cena
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Should Cena sign on, he will join the cast that is already reported to include Idris ElbaMargot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller.  Elba’s role is currently unknown.  He was initially hired to replace Will Smith as Deadshot, but Gunn has since announced that he would instead portray a different character.

 

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In addition to The Peacemaker, Gunn is said to have included the villains King Shark, Ratcatcher, and Polka Dot Man in the script.

Bautista and Gunn will work together again on Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3’, which Gunn is expected to resume working on after he completes ‘The Suicide Squad’.  Bautista may or may not return as Drax in ‘Avengers: Endgame’, out next week.

After ‘Endgame’, Bautista has a pretty busy year.  In June, he will star opposite Sylvester Stalone in ‘Escape Plan: The Extractors’, followed by the action-comedy ‘Stuber’ with Kumail Nanjiani in July.  He also has another comedy, ‘My Spy’ due out, but the release date is unknown.