Superhero Bits: Dave Bautista Wasn't Asked To Voice Drax In 'What If...?', 'Venom 2' Is Getting Energy Drinks & More

(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)

In this edition of Superhero Bits:

For all you Marvel Contest of Champions out there, the mobile fighting game is adding America Chavez before she makes her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by way of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Kabam, the game's developer announced the addition of America Chavez (AKA Miss America) along with her abilities in the game. She's described as a Mystic class character and a powerful brawler specializing in drawing strength from buffs and overwhelming opponents with heavy-hitting combos. If you play the game, then you know what that means. Chavez will also be able to open gateways to parallel dimensions, which provide utility and increases her base stats.

Find out more in the official announcement from Kabam over here.

Peter Sciretta and his Ordinary Adventures YouTube channel are back at Avengers Campus at Disneyland in California, and they've discovered that the theme park expansion is already making some changes shortly after opening. Find out about some new merch, updates to the Spider-Man stunt display, and more.

Oh, there most certainly will be #Carnage. And #Venom. And #GFUEL...@VenomMovie 👀

🎬 Exclusively in theaters this fall! pic.twitter.com/7pECfBXAbj

— G FUEL® (@GFuelEnergy) August 2, 2021

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is coming to theaters in September, and there will be plenty of cross-promotion to go along with it. The energy drink G-Fuel is one of the first out of the gate with two new flavors coming soon. The flavors themselves haven't officially been announced, but they will undoubtedly be inspired by Venom and Carnage, so I'm gonna guess it's tar and blood.

A new promo for DC's Legends of Tomorrow also acts as marketing for The Suicide Squad. Co-star Nathan Fillion appears in this TV spot that addresses the DC Comics time-traveling superhero team and tells them that logic and rationale are highly overrated when it comes to saving a member of your own team.

The Gifted tried to bring the appeal of the X-Men to the small screen with two seasons of television on FOX. But the sale of 20th Century Fox to Disney and the end of the X-Men franchise created all sorts of problems for the series, and creator Matt Nix hopes that the future of the mutant superheroes will integrate film and TV. Nix told Comic Book Resources:

"My fantasy for an X-Men TV show going forward, whether or not I'm involved with it, is something where they really can integrate what's going on with the movies and what's going on on TV and not need to keep such a rigid wall between the two of them. That's something they did very well with The Avengers and, hopefully, they can do that with the X-Men, because we were in a position where we were like, 'Let's make a show about the X-Men and never say the word 'Magneto.” And that's a challenge. I think we worked our way around it as best as we could. I'm proud of the show, but obviously, that's not ideal. But, I'm excited to see what they do with it because it's a world that I love."

Indeed, the X-Men deserve a TV show that doesn't have any limitations with what they can and can't do. Now that X-Men rights are situated back at Marvel Studios, here's hoping that there are big, grand plans to usher in the mutants and tell their stories in a variety of ways.

A new TV spot tells fans to expect the unexpected when Marvel's What If...? animated series arrives on Disney+ next week. There's a new shot of the original Avengers in animated form, which makes us wonder how they'll come into play in this anthology series. There are certainly some surprising twists and turns involving those characters, and we're very interested to see how this series plays out.

When a fan asked why Dave Bautista didn't reprise the role of Drax the Destroyer in Marvel's What If...?, the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise co-star bluntly explained that he was never invited to take the job. With major Marvel stars like Chris Hemsworth, Paul Rudd, Josh Brolin, Samuel L. Jackson and Chadwick Boseman on board, why didn't they ask Dave Bautista? As you can see in the tweet above, even James Gunn was shocked at this information.

Perhaps this has something to do with how openly critical Dave Bautista was of Disney when James Gunn was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 awhile back. Maybe his relationship with the studio is a tenuous one, and he's only sticking around because of James Gunn. Either way, this feels like an unnecessary oversight.

If you can't wait until The Suicide Squad hits theaters and HBO Max this week, then take a gander at this collection of all the trailers, TV spots, and clips that have been released from the movie so far (via JoBlo). There may be too much revealed in this marketing footage, so if you're already sold on the movie, then hold off for a few days. It'll be worth it.

Finally, Marvel has released a new poster for Marvel's What If...? animated series that has a Captain America poster in the style of 1940s patriotic propaganda being torn away to reveal Peggy Carter as Captain Carter. She's where this alternate universe of Marvel stories begins, and the show's creative team has pegged her as the crux of the series, which will feature her reappearing in later seasons.