After the Gears of War movie was greenlit by Netflix earlier this week, actor and retired pro wrestler Dave Bautista — known for playing Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy — has posted a video of himself on Twitter in the full COG armor of Marcus Fenix , the iconic protagonist of the Gears of War franchise. Bautista has also added a caption saying that he "can't make this any easier", implying that Netflix should hurry up and hire him for the upcoming movie.
Netflix has yet to announce the names of the production team and cast members, fueling the drive behind Bautista's actions born from his strong desire to star in the movie. Bautista is a very passionate fan of Gears of War to the point of refusing another movie offer — The Fast and Furious — from Universal Studios just because he wasn't interested. He said that Gears is more interesting to him, and that he can do a good job on it if it's something that he loves and feels excited about.
It isn't only Bautista who is hyped for such a prospect. Even Cliff Bleszinski, the creator of the first three original Gears of War games, is on board with the idea. He even commented on Bautista's latest video saying that Bautista is his first choice for the role. Fans from all across the world are also posting daily about wanting the same thing, and in 2018, Bautista was open about wanting a petition to be made to help him get the role after he pestered Universal Studios a lot about the same topic.
The Gears of War movie had been in development hell for some time, or more specifically, there was a discrepancy between the budget allocated to the movie, and the scope of the story it wanted to tell. At one point the creators wanted to do a sprawling epic spanning three movies, but due to a budget cut, they revised their plans and brought the project to a stall. Now with Netflix announcing a movie, in addition to an animated series, and teasing fans about more potential projects, it seems that the budget problem has finally been resolved.