Concept Art Shows What Jason Momoa Might Have Looked Like as Drax the Destroyer

Geeks with long memories may remember that Jason Momoa was up for the role of Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy. In the end, Marvel cast Dave Bautista, and everyone — including Momoa — seems happy with that outcome. However, just to give us a taste of what might have been, Marvel Studios’ Head of Visual Development, Charlie Wen, dropped some concept art of what Momoa might have looked like in the role. Wen calls it an “early sketch” and says that Momoa gave a great audition, but Bautista ended up being a better fit.

Jason Momoa was almost Drax (before his #aquaman days;)! He also had a great audition that deftly displayed his toughness and double blades handles. But in short, Bautista was definitely the right choice- he had a perfect blend of natural quirk and braun😜. * This was an early sketch to explore the prospect of Momoa taking on the character. * The comicbook version was extremely close to another character that I designed called Kratos for #godofwar , so...I tried to steer Drax clear of it. @justinjsweet did the super cool final concept design for Drax! * * * * * #cinema #MarvelStudios #guardiansofthegalaxy #drax #JasonMomoa #charliewen #bts #moviemaking #filmmaking #filmcasting #conceptart #casting #marvel #castingcall #actor #characterdesign @prideofgypsies

2,090 Likes, 29 Comments - Charlie Wen (@imcharliewen) on Instagram: "Jason Momoa was almost Drax (before his #aquaman days;)! He also had a great audition that deftly..."

Don’t feel too bad for Jason Momoa though. In addition to toplining the DCEU’s highest-grossing film, he didn’t even really want the part. Back in 2014 he told Zap2It:

“Dave is perfect for that role, for Drax. It didn’t really fit in my time because I’ve done so many things where I don’t say much and I’m colored up and I have my shirt off again.

“I made a conscious choice to turn down some movies that were action-based to direct Road to Paloma so people could see that side…. It’s not that it’s not a good role, it just wasn’t the right thing. I was on Stargate: Atlantis for four years playing a similar character called Ronon, who was an alien who didn’t say much and grunted. I’ve been there and done that, whether people have seen it or not. You want to stretch.”

Well, Jason, I don’t think anyone is ever going to complain about watching you run around shirtless, but I get where you are coming from. And due to the character’s main attributes, I can’t think of a way to phrase this without making it sound like an insult, so just know that I interviewed Dave Bautista a bunch of years ago and he seemed like a thoughtful man of reasonable intelligence, but I think he is much better suited to the role of Drax than Momoa is. We got a great Drax and a great Aquaman, so in the end we all got what we wanted.

We will next see Bautista as Drax in Avengers: Endgame (or will we? (No, we definitely will.)) And presumably he will also be in Guardians of the Galaxy 3, coming someday from someone.

Via: CB