2025 has had its fair share of hits so far, but one film that definitely doesn’t meet that description was Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista’s sci-fi western, In the Lost Lands. Despite being based on a short story by acclaimed author George R. R. Martin, the film didn’t manage to make much of a splash, as In the Lost Lands‘s review scores were only made worse by the movie’s extremely poor box office. Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista are pretty big names, but unfortunately they still weren’t able to save this one from its fate.

While Milla Jovovich’s career has felt stagnant for a while since the end of her biggest franchise, Resident Evil, and In the Lost Lands is certainly no replacement for that, Dave Bautista has had a pretty steady career since his acting breakthrough in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy and the rest of his MCU appearances. So far, Bautista has managed to maintain a pretty diverse career, taking on roles of many different colors, clearly intent on not being labeled as a simple action star like many other wrestler-turned actors.

Dave Bautista Said He Doesn’t Want To Keep Doing Action Movies After In The Lost Lands

The Actor Prefers Taking On More Challenging Indie Roles

Since his mainstream film debut, Bautista has remained adamant that he doesn’t want to be just another action star, taking on only roles that require a big man with muscles to do a lot of fighting. Many of his projects reflect that, as he has taken on roles in projects that wouldn’t necessarily reflect what one would expect from the actor who portrayed Drax in the MCU. In a recent interview with Polygon, Bautista clarified his stance, speaking about the kinds of roles he chooses and why:

I don’t want to be an action star. It’s weird — I know I easily fit into that mold, but I really fought against it for years, and I turned down a lot of roles, because I just didn’t want to be stuck in that rut, and I wanted for people to see me outside of that box.

He later went on to say that, while he is more willing to do action movies these days, evidenced by his more recent streak of projects, he is much more interested in independent cinema and taking on more challenging roles than most of the big action properties of the modern day would allow for. His characters in movies like Blade Runner 2049, Knock at the Cabin, and even his animated performance in The Boy and the Heron‘s English dub prove that he does very well with less action-focused roles, making Bautista’s career pivot very understandable.

Dave Bautista Has Multiple Other Action Movies Coming After In The Lost Lands

His Next Few Projects Are Heavily Focused On The Action Genre

While the actor prefers working outside the action genre, his next few projects are all pretty consistently big action movies, where he will presumably play a relatively standard leading action man role. The movies in question are The Wrecking Crew, a buddy-cop film with Jason Momoa, Afterburn, a sci-fi post-apocalyptic action flick, Trap House, an action/thriller, and Dreadnought, another post-apocalyptic movie, produced by Thunder Road Films, who have had a hand in the John Wick franchise since its inception.

Clearly, the actor is at a very action-focused time in his career right now, with the My Spy movies, The Killer’s Game, and In the Lost Lands as some of Bautista’s most recent work, which is seemingly going to continue. As he said in the Polygon article, he seems more willing to do action these days, as earlier on in his career he didn’t have quite so many projects in the genre going on at once, but he is still a solid leading man in these movies.

In The Lost Lands Was Bad, But Dave Bautista Completely Leaving The Action Movie Genre Would Be The Wrong Decision

Bautista Is Still Great In The Majority Of His Action Roles

Unfortunately, as some of Bautista’s recent action work has been less than stellar, he is very possibly looking to move out of the genre even more now. In the Lost Lands flopped pretty hard, and unless some of his upcoming work is a mᴀssive success, it would make sense for him to distance himself from action roles once again. While this would be a fair enough decision, it would also be sad to see, because, when he is in the right project, Bautista can really shine in a more action-heavy role.

The failure of In the Lost Lands likely stings quite a bit, but some of Bautista’s best work was in his action movies. There is a reason that the actor made his breakthrough with Drax the Destroyer, because he was an excellent fit for that role, and even though he wasn’t the star of the show, the character had depth and emotional resonance for audiences, despite the fact that he seemed to just be the big action guy. In the Lost Lands may have been a miss, but it shouldn’t be Bautista’s last major action attempt.