The Walking Dead Actor Tapped For Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

Michael Rooker is headed to space. The Walking Dead star has been cast in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. So, who will he be playing? Hit the jump to find out! 

Many were hoping the actor, who’s good friends with director James Gunn, would voice Rocket Racoon. If you were one of them, I’m sorry.

Rooker will play the character Yondu. If you’re not a comic reader but have been following news about this particular movie, you’ll notice this isn’t one of them names previously announced for the film. Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot are the “Guardians” for the film but Yondu was a founding member of an earlier version in the comics. He’s a blue-skinned hunter-warrior from another world and his people fled when Earthlings started to colonize.

Yondu doesn’t have traditional superhero powers but does have a limited sixth sense that allows him empathic abilities with other beings. Rooker will join Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana (presumably), and David Bautista in Guardians of the Galaxy.

It’s worthy of noting Yondu lost one of his hands in the comics, much like Merle from The Walking Dead. I wonder if Gunn is going to make him hide a hand for another few months…What do you think of the casting?

(via Collider)

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Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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