Dave Bautista Reveals the Real Reason He Said No to Peacemaker — And Why It Paid Off Big Time
James Gunn wrote Peacemaker with Dave Bautista in mind, but the star turned it down — now he explains why passing on the role became a blessing in disguise and how it redirected his career.
Here is a fun Hollywood what-if: James Gunn originally built Peacemaker for Dave Bautista. Yep, before John Cena strapped on the bucket helmet, Gunn wrote the part with his Guardians buddy in mind. It didn’t happen, for a mix of very normal, very unsexy reasons (money, schedules), and Bautista now thinks the universe made the right call.
Gunn’s original plan: Bautista as Peacemaker
On Howard Stern’s show, Gunn said he went straight to Bautista for the role. They’re close, Bautista was already his Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy, and Gunn crafted the character with him in mind. The problem? Bautista had two other movie offers on the table, and Peacemaker wasn’t exactly paying Marvel money.
Gunn said Bautista "had to go where the money was" and admitted "we weren’t paying him a lot."
Bautista’s side: wanted it, couldn’t do it
Talking to ComicBook.com, Bautista said he genuinely wanted the gig. He knew the part was written for him, but he was locked into Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, and the schedules just wouldn’t play nice. Depending on which angle you look at, it was both a calendar crunch and a paycheck reality check. Showbiz, not drama.
- Gunn writes Peacemaker for Bautista and offers him the lead.
- Bautista is tied up with Army of the Dead and weighing better-paying film offers.
- They can’t make the dates or the dollars align, so the role moves on.
- Enter John Cena, who ends up defining the character.
'Blessing in disguise'
Bautista is refreshingly blunt about the outcome. He thinks Cena was the right call and that he wouldn’t have delivered the same thing.
Bautista calls it "a blessing in disguise" and says Cena is "just perfect for it."
He even goes further: in his view, the show wouldn’t have been as successful if he’d taken it. That’s not false modesty; that’s a guy who knows what makes a character click. And to be fair, Cena’s specific mix of doofus bravado and bruised-heart sincerity is the show’s secret sauce.
Where things stand now
The first four episodes of Peacemaker season 2 are now streaming on Max. Early word is strong: critic Alex Maidy at JoBlo says season 2 tops the debut run, praises Gunn’s early DCU output as both varied and high quality, and highlights Cena’s blend of muscle and emotion as the glue that makes the ensemble pop. He’s already betting on a season 3 and more DCU tie-ins coming out of this run.
So yeah, the alternate timeline with Bautista-in-a-chrome-helmet is fun to imagine, but in this universe, John Cena planted a flag and made Peacemaker his. And by the sound of it, both Gunn and Bautista think that worked out exactly how it should have.