Confirmed: Bradley Cooper One Contender for Rocket Racoon
Fact From the Vapor of Nuance
Perhaps the most highly anticipated casting announcement for Guardians of the Galaxy is Rocket Raccoon (no relation to Rocky). After all, who wouldn’t want to know how Marvel Entertainment plans to pull off a genetically engineered, sentient, bipedal, gunslinging raccoon of inexplicably alien origin in a modern superhero team movie? One that isn’t historically, the comic relief of his team. It seems as though their first stab at a voice actor for Rocket is Bradley Cooper.
Which should tell you right off the bat that they’re not here to give Rocket a funny voice. We shouldn’t assume Cooper is a lock for the part, however:
Bradley Cooper is in early discussions to voice the machine gun-wielding Rocket Raccoon in Disney and Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy,” sources confirm to Variety. While no deal is in place, a formal offer has been made to Cooper and talks are said to be ongoing between Marvel and CAA.
Cooper’s no stranger to dark comedy, as the closest thing that The Hangover had to a straight man. Rocket is traditionally not really a comic relief character. Or at least, he’s the butt of jokes (much to his chagrin and sometimes violet retaliation), rather than the cracker of them. He’s also traditionally buddies with Groot, who is also yet to be officially cast. It seems silly to speculate on the chemistry between Cooper and rumored Groot actor Vin Diesel, given the fact that all Groot ever says is a Pokémon-like “I am Groot,” but not quite silly enough to make a good joke about it in this post.
We shouldn’t consider this a firm casting call: Cooper is just in preliminary discussions. Instead, this should probably be viewed as a solid indication of what kind of actor Marvel is going for in the “violent anthropomorphic raccoon” area.
(via Variety.)
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