In the aftermath of Disney firing James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, nobody has been more vocal in their unhappiness that Dave Bautista. And now, the Drax actor has stated that he won’t be returning for Guardians 3 unless Gunn’s script is used.

Previously, the Spectre rogue had talked about his upset at Gunn being fired, publicly backing the Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 director. Now, he’s gone one further and mentioned the possibility of asking to be released from his Guardians 3 contract.

Speaking to Short List, Bautista passionately explained, “Nobody’s defending his tweets, but this was a smear campaign on a good man. I spoke to Chris Pratt the day after it happened, and he’s a bit religious so he wanted time to pray and figure it out, but I was like, ‘’Fuck this. This is bullshit.’ James is one of the kindest, most decent people I’ve met. Where I’m at right now is that if they don’t use that script, then I’m going to ask them to release me from my contract, cut me out or recast me.”

In case you’ve been living under a rock, last month saw a whole slew of James Gunn’s old social media messages resurface. Gunn himself instantly came out and took ownership of the posts – which were from 2012 – and explained how he used to post controversial content merely for shock value and to get himself noticed. When the topics include the likes of rape and paedophilia, you have to question whenever that would be seen as a good idea. Some will call it misguided, some will call it bad taste, and others will call it utterly disgusting. Regardless, Disney were left with a tough call and decided to fire Gunn, despite him (and many others) stating how he’s a very different person these days. You can argue that they had no real choice in the matter, but then again, it’s not like the Walt Disney Company has previous themselves for questionable content in their past…

It certainly looks like we’ve not seen the end of all of this just yet, and there really does seem to be some major questions over the future of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Originally, that film was to be Gunn’s last with the Guardians team, and he was then to serve as an advisor and creative force on the ever-expanding Marvel Cosmic Universe as Marvel Studios and Disney look to further delve into the stars.

At the crux of this, of course, the key figures of Guardians 3 are all signed up and contracted to that third film. So, regardless of unhappiness within the camp, Disney could simply play their legally-binding card of contractual duties should it come down to it.

Expect more on this whole situation as it continues to play out.

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