Marvel revealed today that one of the core characters in Guardians of the Galaxy has finally been cast – Silver Linings Playbook star Bradley Cooper will provide the voice of Rocket Raccoon for the James Gunn-directed space epic, which is set for release on August 1st, 2014. This news broke last week but only today was it made official.
Rocket Raccoon, a fan favorite amongst readers of the Guardians of the Galaxy comic, is a genetically modified raccoon with incredible hearing, an extremely honed sense of smell, a penchant for explosives and heavy artillery and a flair for piloting spaceships. No word yet on whether Cooper will use the cockney accent that many iterations of Rocket Raccoon have possessed, though personally I’m hoping that he will deliver his own take on the anthropomorphic critter without any distracting accents.
The feisty character joins a cast of misfit ex-cons who form a squad and go on the run with a powerful object, only to confront a cosmic evil determined to secure the object for itself. The other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy include Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), aka Star-Lord, a rakish American pilot who becomes the team’s reluctant leader; Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the green adopted daughter of power-hungry alien Thanos; Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), a warrior seeking vengeance against Thanos’ vicious admiral Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace); and giant tree-man Groot (to be voiced by Vin Diesel). One of the Guardians’ founding members, blue-skinned alien Yondu, will be played by Michael Rooker.
Aside from Pace’s Ronan, the Guardians of the Galaxy will also clash with villainous space-pirate Nebula (Karen Gillan), an ally of Thanos named Korath (Djimon Hounsou), and an ancient, all-powerful figure known as The Collector (Benicio del Toro).
Though Guardians of the Galaxy is certainly the weirdest project in Marvel’s pipeline, it’s also inarguably the most ambitious, and I’m excited to see what the final product will turn out like. The entire film is set in space and will rely heavily on motion capture and CGI for Groot and Rocket Raccoon, not to mention all of the multi-colored alien characters, which makes me worry a little that too much special effects could turn the film into a disorienting cartoon. However, Marvel hasn’t let me down yet, so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Is Bradley Cooper the right choice for Rocket Raccoon? Are you excited for Guardians of the Galaxy, or does it sound too far out for you? Let me know in the comments section.
