'Star Wars' Turned Down Dave Bautista For Two Roles, The Actor Reveals

Dave Bautista may be part of two major sci-fi franchises, but he sadly missed out on starring in a third. The Guardians of the Galaxy and Blade Runner 2049 actor impressed with his supporting turns in both series, but Bautista revealed that he aimed for the stars, and got rejected by them — twice.

In an interview with Flickering Myth, Bautista said that he is a major Star Wars fan and even auditioned twice for roles in the seminal sci-fi franchise. Unfortunately, that only resulted in him getting turned down twice:

"I've actually auditioned for a couple of Star Wars [movies] and they've turned me down. It was always a dream of mine to be in a Star Wars film. I can't say I'm the biggest fan of the latest installments. I particularly loved Rogue One. I thought it was a really great film and I love that they went a little bit dark with it. I thought it was really interesting."

Bautista didn't reveal which films he auditioned for, but with that shout-out to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, it's possible that a part in the Gareth Edwards standalone film was one of those roles. My guess: he tried out for the part of hardened soldier Baze Malbus, the companion of Donnie Yen's Chirrut Imwe, that ultimately went to Jiang Wen.

Unfortunately, Bautista didn't get to live out his dream of appearing in a Star Wars movie, but he does star in another Disney property — which just got put on hold indefinitely following the firing of Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn. And Bautista has not really been quiet about his dissatisfaction with Disney's actions with Gunn, so I'm not sure if that will help him achieve his dream of crossing over to Star Wars. But then again, we're on the cusp of a dramatic Star Wars expansion, with Lucasfilm developing dozens of TV shows and new trilogies, and basically handing out Star Wars movies to everyone. Somewhere down the line, there should be at least one role that Bautista could land.