Batista Says He’ll Quit Guardians of the Galaxy If James Gunn’s Script Isn’t Used

Batista has taken his stance against Disney’s release of James Gunn a step further, saying he’ll quit if Gunn’s script for the third film isn’t used. The WWE alum and actor spoke with ShortList about the situation, saying that he would be doing Gunn a “disservice” if he didn’t take this stand.

Gunn was fired by Disney over tweets he made between 2008 and 2012 in which he joked about rape, pedophilia and other such topics, which were brought back into focus by conservative personalities in retaliation for Gunn’s outspoken views against Donald Trump. The cast of the Guardians films wrote an open letter in support of Gunn being reinstated. Batista in particular has been vocal on the topic, most recently tweeting that doing the film without Gunn as director “is not what I signed up for.”

“Nobody’s defending his tweets, but this was a smear campaign on a good man,” Batista said. “I spoke to Chris Pratt the day after it happened and he’s a bit religious so he wanted time to pray and figure it out, but I was more like: f**k this. This is bulls**t. James is one of the kindest, most decent people I’ve met.”

Batista said that the key for him is the script, which Gunn turned a finalized version in for before he was fired. “Where I’m at right now is that if [Marvel] don’t use that script, then I’m going to ask them to release me from my contract, cut me out or recast me,” he said. “I’d be doing James a disservice if I didn’t.”

He also acknowledged that the cast’s open letter and other voices of support are not likely to sway Disney to bring Gunn back behind the camera, noting, “I don’t think [it] will get him re-hired. But I hope it opens people’s eyes to James’ character.”