GAME OF THRONES Actor Admits To Turning Down Drax Role

Jason Momoa, the big tough barbarian dude from Game of Thrones and the Conan reboot, was often rumored for the role of Drax the Destroyer in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. I actually thought he’d be perfect for the role, on account of all of his previous hacking and slashing, but Momoa lost the spot to wrestler-turned-actor Dave Batista. Major outlets reported that Jason got a little too greedy, and requested a big whopping salary from Marvel Studios, a company which is so notorious for cheapness.

Well, according to Momoa, Marvel didn’t turn him down. Nope. Momoa turned THEM down. Alpha move by an action actor with no big movies scheduled.

Here’s what he said in full:

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.”

“I want my children to see their father happy,” he said of not signing on to play Drax. “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.”

I’m psyched to see Dave Batista stick the pointy end of a knife through a few interstellar villains, perhaps a Kronnan or two. He’s definitely a strong, silent type, probably on account of his own acting limitations, but he’s the perfect type for Drax.

Hopefully we’ll see more from Jason Momoa, though. The guy’s a class act and amazingly generous to fans, as he’s been known to bend the elbow a time or two with fanboys.