The Big Picture
There’s a longstanding history in the entertainment industry of professional athletes, especially wrestlers, who go from the ring to the screen. John Cena famously plays Peacemaker in the DC Extended Universe, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson got to play Black Adam, but there’s another big-name WWE star who has taken to the screen: Dave Bautista. Nowadays, Bautista is probably most closely associated with his work on the Guardians of the Galaxy series, but back in the day, he launched his acting career after first appearing on Smallville.
That’s right, before Bautista was a Marvel superstar, he got his start in a DC Comics adaptation of Superman’s origins in the 21st century. Smallville ran for an entire decade between October 2001 and May 2011, and as we watched a young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) grow up and into his powers, he faced plenty of supervillains from all over the galaxy, including Bautista’s character Aldar. Appearing only in one episode of Smallville’s sixth season, Bautista was one of the most ruthless antagonists to appear on the show (and Sam Witwer played Doomsday a few years later). No wonder he was recognized after this.
A young Clark Kent struggles to find his place in the world as he learns to harness his alien powers for good and deals with the typical troubles of teenage life in Smallville, Kansas.
Release Date October 16, 2001
Cast Tom Welling, Cassidy Freeman, Erica Durance, Justin Hartley
Genres Drama, Superhero
Seasons 10
How Did Dave Bautista End up on ‘Smallville’?
Strangely enough, Bautista wasn’t the only WWE star to appear on Smallville that season. A few episodes later in “Combat,” Clark goes up against an alien fighter named Titan (very loosely based on the DC Comics character of the same name), who is played by none other than Glenn Jacobs aka Kane. Turns out, Titan is the first person that Clark ever kills (though he’s remorseful about it later), proving that Henry Cavill’s Superman in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel may not have deserved all the hate he got back in 2013. After all, Welling’s proto-Superman did it back in ’07 and most were still happy to see him become Superman by the show’s end.
But according to Bautista in an interview with Wired, he just sort of fell into acting with no prior desire to switch his career. “[The] Smallville gig was another one of those things I got through WWE. At that point I had absolutely no aspirations to pursue acting,” he explained. Yet, here he was on the Season 6 episode “Static,” where he played an escaped alien criminal from the Phantom Zone who, after Clark messes up (as he often does), finds himself on Earth. This Zoner soon returns to his criminal ways and begins killing folks in Seattle, that is until Clark arrives to stop him.
What Happens in the ‘Smallville’ Episode With Dave Bautista?
By the time Clark arrives, Aldar has already killed a few people, using his trademark “Backbreaker” move to rip out the spines of his enemies. Yeah, it’s pretty gruesome, and a perfect first role for Bautista to sink his teeth into. Unfortunately, Clark hardly gets to fight Aldar at all. After being thrown into a crane, Clark returns to finish off his new foe, only to find him gone. Though the Man of Steel does track Aldar down later that evening, before he can lay a hand on him, the Zoner nearly rips out his spine.
Thankfully, Clark is saved by a shadowy figure who kills Aldar, leaving only an Oreo behind as he flies away into the night. This figure is later revealed to be the fan-favorite DC Comics character (and future Justice League member) Martian Manhunter (Phil Morris), who on Smallville was an ally of Clark’s biological father Jor-El (Julian Sands) and helped trap Aldar in the Phantom Zone originally. And then that’s it, Dave Bautista never appears on Smallville again, and his first television appearance (outside WWE that is) concludes with his death.
Oddly enough, the episode is called “Static” — not because of anything to do with Clark’s search for Aldar (which is actually the B-plot of this episode), but rather the storyline following Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) and Lana (Kristin Kreuk) as they’re stalked by one of Lex’s old LuthorCorp test subjects who can toss you into a different “static” dimension where you can’t interact with the world. It’s an interesting arc for sure, but there’s no denying that Clark’s story is a bit more exciting, even if it feels a bit anti-climactic.
Dave Bautista Became a Staple in the Marvel Universe
Years later, Bautista would be cast as Drax the Destroyer in future DC Studios co-head James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, a role he’d return to four different times. In the wake of Gunn’s firing from Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (which led to Gunn’s work on The Suicide Squad), Bautista went to bat for his longtime director, claiming that Marvel Studios’ decision to fire Gunn was unjust. “I don’t know if I want to work for Disney,” the actor later revealed on The Jonathan Ross Show. “I’ve been very vocal about the way I feel. You know, I’m not afraid to admit the way I feel.”
Soon after, Gunn was rehired to work on Vol. 3, Bautista returned as Drax, and the rest is history. Since then, Gunn was given the helm of the DC Extended Universe, which he scrapped in favor of his upcoming DC Universe rebrand, complete with a new Batman and Superman. With the news of a reboot, Bautista is interested in returning to the live-action world of DC Comics, but this time as a different character than a lone Phantom Zone criminal.
Apparently, the actor quickly met with Warner Bros. and pitched them the idea of him playing the Batman villain Bane (played by Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises) in a future Bat-flick. Though he’s since confirmed that there are no plans for Bane to appear in a DCU project in the foreseeable future, there’s no denying that James Gunn likes to cast his friends in exciting roles. Just look at Nathan Fillion who appeared first in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, and is now set to play the Guy Gardner version of Green Lantern in the DCU. There’s certainly hope.
‘Smallville’ Was Ahead of Its Time (And the MCU)
In its day, Smallville was known for pushing the boundaries of acceptable comic book media on television. Movies like Spider-Man, X-Men, and even Batman Begins were popular during the show’s early years, but, on television, the networks were looking for soapy dramas to fill the airwaves. Smallville gave fans the best of both worlds, with plenty of relationship drama to go around and more comic book-inspired plotlines as the show went forward.
By the time Bautista appeared on the show, Justin Hartley had been introduced as Oliver Queen aka the Green Arrow, and a version of the Justice League — consisting of Alan Ritchson as Aquaman, Kyle Gallner as Impulse, and Lee Thompson Young as Cyborg — assembled three episodes later in “Justice.” This episode changed the course of the show as each member of the team was introduced steadily over the course of three seasons before they all worked together on-screen. Sounds a bit like the MCU in many ways, which used the same technique for its first phase, starting with Iron Man and leading to The Avengers.
In many ways, Smallville was ahead of its time, casting actors like Bautista, Evangeline Lilly, Cobie Smulders, and Adrianne Palicki, all of whom would become a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point down the line. Even Michael Rosenbaum appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 and its sequel, while fellow cast members John Glover (Lionel Luthor), guest star Amy Adams (Jodi Melville), and recurring star Alessandro Juliani (Emil Hamilton), to name only a few, ended up a part of the DC Extended Universe. Maybe one day, Dave Bautista will make it over to DC again too.
Smallville is available for streaming on Hulu in the U.S.
Watch on Hulu
