Dave Bautista is officially throwing his hat in the ring to play Marcus Fenix in Netflix's upcoming Gears of War film. The Guardians of the Galaxy star took to social media to post a video of himself dressed in the game's iconic armor.
“I can’t make this any easier,” he said, tagging the official Netflix and Gears of War accounts. The post comes just a few days after Netflix officially announced plans for a live-action movie adaptation of the popular video game franchise. The streaming service is also developing an adult animated series.
The footage isn't brand new, however. It actually comes from the 2019 trailer for Gears 5 in which Dave Bautista was announced as a playable DLC character.
Although the footage may be old, Bautista is reminding everyone that he would be a great candidate for a Gears of War movie, specifically Marcus Fenix, which he previously described as being his "dream role." In fact, the actor even turned down a role in the Fast and Furious franchise to pursue a Gears of War movie.
“They wanted to talk to me about Fast and the Furious, and I said 'I’m not interested, let’s talk about [Gears of War character] Marcus Fenix,’” he said in an interview back in 2021.
A Gears of War movie has reportedly been in the works since at least 2007, but has been mired in development hell. Several writers have joined and departed the project, and the movie has changed from New Line to Universal and now to Netflix.
While there's no doubt that Dave Bautista would look amazing as Marcus Fenix and almost certainly do the role justice, we don't know if Netflix's adaptation will specifically focus on that character, since plot details for the film have not yet been revealed.
The first Gears of War video game followed protagonist Marcus Fenix, a soldier in the Coalition of Ordered Governments, as he leads a last-ditch effort to destroy the Locust Horde and save humanity. However, we don't know if this adaptation will simply retell the video games or if it will take creative liberties with the franchise and perhaps shift the focus to another soldier in the conflict between humanity and the Locust Horde.
Even if Dave Bautista does not get his dream role of Marcus Fenix, it would be nice to at least see him have some sort of part in the upcoming film. Or, failing that, maybe the animated project that is also in development.