Dave Bautista Hired To Hench As Hinx In BOND 24

Thunderball. Moonraker. Die Another Day. What do these Bond films have in common with each other? For one thing, they're all the fourth entry in their respective stars' run as 007. Secondly, and more importantly: they're all bloated messes!

I'll be getting into this phenomenon in more detail down the road - just like last time - but for now suffice it to say that an actor's fourth at-bat as Bond is, historically speaking, troubled waters. Troubled, overlong, "throw all the money at this one" waters. This trend was very much on my mind when I read Latino Review's scoop that wrestler-turned-comedic star Dave Bautista has been tapped to play an "iconic henchman" named Hinx in Bond 24.

Last week we found out that the highly overqualified Léa Seydoux would be playing a femme fatale in the new film. Now it looks like Bautista, fresh off his breakout role as Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy, will be joining the party. Eon, who in Skyfall used a chunk of London's East End to double as a street in Shanghai, seems to have switched gears financially for this outing, returning to the excessive globe-trotting of earlier outings, and making it rain in the trailers of its supporting cast.

But more than a Halle Berry-esque waste of money, a henchman role - even a great one - seems at first glance a potential waste of Bautista. He was a real comedic highlight of Guardians, and it'd be a shame to see him reduced to a mere (albeit lethal) sight gag for the Bondverse. The villain of Bond 24 already had some big shoes to fill after Javier Bardem's Silva; with Seydoux and Bautista in the mix, it's now starting to look like he or she might have trouble outshining the hired help.