Dave Bautista is getting his knives out again, but not as Drax the Destroyer. The wreslter-turned-actor has joined the cast of Rian Johnson’s sequel Knives Out 2 (via Deadline).
Bautista, who next headlines Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, will star alongside returning lead Daniel Craig. Rian Johnson is back to write and direct what is said to be the first of two sequels to his 2019 smash hit Knives Out. Both films are set up at Netflix, which reportedly paid $450 million for the unproduced movies.
One of our favorite flicks of ’19, the Oscar-nominated Knives Out earned $311.4 million at the box office on just a $40 million budget. It saw Craig leading an ensemble cast (Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield) as he tried to solve the murder of a wealthy mystery novelist.
What case Craig’s Benoit Blanc will be on for Knives Out 2 is not yet known, nor is Bautista’s role in the plot. However, it’s fair to assume it will be another sordid mystery with an exciting cast of possible perpetrators. No word yet if any of the original’s cast will also return for the follow-up.
News of Bautista’s casting comes just three days after he revealed he would be retiring from his Marvel Cinematic Universe role as Drax, a part that kickstarted his Hollywood career. The actor replied to a tweeted story about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 being the last hurrah for Drax by saying, “Drax isn’t going anywhere. He just won’t be played by this dude! By the time G3 comes out I’ll be 54 yrs old for gods sake! Im expecting everything to start sagging any second now.”
James Gunn, the filmmaker who original cast Bautista as Drax and is returning to helm GotG3, responded by implying he wouldn’t recast the character for any future installments under his direction. “There’s no Drax for me without you, buddy!” Gunn wrote. “You ARE the MCU’s Drax the Destroyer and, as far as I’m concerned, could never be replaced.”
