A fan-casting of Dave Bautista in an obscure DC Universe role seems to have struck a chord with the co-CEO of DC Studios, James Gunn.
Over on the dumpster fire of filth of a social media platform known as Twitter, Gunn liked a tweet by a fan in which they shared a pitch for Bautista as the DC hero known as Wildcat. The post included a collage of images of Bautista and the Wildcat character from the comics.
Wildcat bears a resemblance to Batman, somewhat, and was even co-created by Batman co-creator Bill Finger. Similar to Batman, Wildcat does not have any powers. Instead, he is a world-class boxer who dresses as a cat and uses his athletic prowess to fight crime on a stunt motorcycle.
Personally, I like this fan-casting because Gunn has had a penchant in the past for plucking comic book characters out of obscurity and bringing them to a much wider audience. Gunn did this with the DC character Peacemaker for the titular show and with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. And of course, with Bautista getting launched into international fame even further than his professional wrestling career with his role as Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, I would love to see the two collaborate creatively again.
Although Bautista has publicly expressed interest in playing the DC character Bane, that appears to have not gone through, despite Bautista’s best efforts. Even though I’d love to see him as Bane, I must say, if Gunn can put his signature darkly comic and macabre spin on Wildcat, he might make for an even more interesting character in the DCU, in my opinion. Plus, with Bautista desiring to stretch his acting muscles more and more, this could be an opportunity for him to workshop the character with Gunn, similar to the way John Cena workshopped the Peacemaker character with Gunn to create something original.
