‘Gears 5’ Plays Co-Op with Dave Bautista

The Coalition and Microsoft have announced that WWE Superstar and actor Dave Bautista will appear as a playable character in the upcoming Xbox video game “Gears 5.”

Bautista made the announcement himself on his personal Twitter account via video, featuring him wearing armor from the “Gears of War” franchise. The deal will see a digital avatar of Batista as a playable character in the game from Sept. 13-Oct. 28. Bautista comes to “Gears 5” in lead up to the upcoming WWE event “Clash of Champions” later this month.

The digital avatar is a response to fans of the series requesting Bautista to appear in the upcoming Gears of War movie that is currently in development. The Guardians of the Galaxy actor has previously been fan casted as one of the series protagonist Marcus Fenix. In a 2018 interview with IGN, Bautista called the potential part a “dream role.”

“Adding Batista to ‘Gears 5,’ we started with the fantasy of ‘Batista as Marcus,’ putting Batista into Marcus’ armor, and starting with Marcus’ script,” says Rod Fergusson, studio head, The Coalition. “Then we added elements of “The Animal” Batista into his voice performance and onto his look by adding his signature Hollywood shades to his character. Batista was great in the booth and I can’t wait for ‘Gears’ and Batista fans alike to stomp some Swarm as The Animal.”

The new “Gears 5” character comes following a similar “Fortnite” deal with actor Keanu Reeves which brought the John Wick character into the digital battle royale game.