Dave Bautista has had an interesting career to date. He started as a professional wrestler, as have several other action film stars, before really breaking out as one of the leads in Marvel Studios’ “Guardians of the Galaxy” (which led to multiple MCU appearances). Then he’s shown up in Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049,” the family-friendly action film, “My Spy,” and numerous other action films where he’s played a large, brooding badass. But sometimes that impressive filmography and physique don’t always equal opportunities, such as when the actor asked to be part of “The Walking Dead.”
Speaking to Empire, where he’s promoting his upcoming zombie-action-heist film, “Army of the Dead,” from filmmaker Zack Snyder, Bautista talked about how he campaigned to be part of “The Walking Dead,” which is the gold standard of modern zombie entertainment but was never offered a part. Why? Well, apparently zombies don’t look jacked.
“I tried to get on ‘Walking Dead’ for years,” explained Bautista. “I said I would come and play a zombie for free, but they said, ‘You’re too big!’”
But don’t go thinking that Dave Bautista is just itching to be in any old zombie project. There has to be something more than just the dead returning to life for him to sign on the dotted line. And in “Army of the Dead,” he credit’s Zack Snyder’s inclusion of another time-honored film subgenre to the mix that makes this Netflix feature stand out from the rest.
“For me, there had to be something special about a zombie film for me to sign up,” said the actor. “What sets us apart is the heist. But there’s a whole bunch of different layers to this film.”
In “Army of the Dead,” Bautista plays Scott Ward, a man who leads a team of mercenaries into the zombie-plagued city of Las Vegas to land one big score. As you might expect, things probably don’t go completely to plan and they have to kill a bunch of undead along the way.
“Army of the Dead” doesn’t have a specific release date, but the film is expected to arrive on Netflix this summer. Here’s a new image from the film, courtesy of Empire:
