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The One Drax Detail That Sadly Never Made It Into Guardians Of The Galaxy

Guardians Galaxy Vol. 3 Drax Dave Bautista Marvel Studios
By Joshua Meyer

This post contains spoilers for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

"Out on the third planet closest to the sun, there's a special celebration, and it sounds quite fun." It's called the "Guardians of the Galaxy" saga, but sadly, despite playing out across a whole movie trilogy and a Disney+ holiday special — complete with an alien band performing a musical number — it has never featured Dave Bautista's character, Drax the Destroyer, wailing on the cosmic saxophone like Kenny G.

Little-known fact: on Earth-13122, otherwise known as the LEGO Universe (as seen in the "Lego Marvel Super Heroes" comic), Drax had a career as a jazz musician called The Draxophonist. His experience with the saxophone dates back to at least the 1990s, when he was a character in "Warlock and the Infinity Watch," published by Marvel Comics. Issues #12–13 of the series saw Drax fighting the Hulk, and they explored a bit of his backstory as "Arthur Douglas, a so-so jazz musician" who died in Nevada and was reanimated, courtesy of a cosmic entity called Kronos, as "the lumbering behemoth known as Drax the Destroyer."

Alas, none of this backstory made it into James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies, a fact that Gunn is now apologizing for (as well he should, if only for the no saxophone part).

As you can see above, when a fan tweeted at Gunn that they loved the "Guardians" trilogy but were "sad we never got to see Super Sax Drax," the filmmaker responded, "I know. @DaveBautista has been taking sax lessons for ten years all to no avail. Maybe he can star in the Stan Getz biopic. Sorry, Dave!"

Give the Draxophonist his due

James Gunn is obviously joking when he says Dave Bautista took saxophone lessons for ten years... but what if he wasn't? Consider the possibilities. The ending of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" already sees the residents of Knowhere dancing like Rebels and Ewok villagers in "Return of the Jedi," a film that turns 40 this week. In the 1997 Special Edition re-edit of "Return of the Jedi," George Lucas famously inserted a new musical number, "Jedi Rocks," written by jazz musician Jerry Hey and performed by the Max Rebo Band.

Cross-reference that with "I Don't Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here)," performed by the Old 97's in "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" (see above). What I'm trying to say, without a hint of hyperbole, is that Gunn needs to get his priorities straight, forget about running DC Studios, and just go back and give the "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy the immediate Special Edition treatment, adding the Draxophonist to any scenes where it would be appropriate for Drax to play the saxophone (or inappropriate — his social skills aren't the best). Either that, or Marvel Studios needs to do an emergency episode of its "What If...?" animated series, centered entirely on Drax's musical career.

That career continued in the 2018 "Infinity Countdown" storyline in Marvel Comics, where Drax used one of the Infinity Stones to power up his saxophone and overcome an entire alien army. To think that none of the characters' rich musical history has made it onscreen yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is nothing less than a crime against cinema and an affront to all humanity. Give us the Draxophonist, you cowards.

Marvel Comics
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