Marvel Studios confirmed last Friday that Bradley Cooper will voice the character Rocket Raccoon in the upcoming superhero action film Guardians of the Galaxy, which will hit theaters next summer.
The character, who is part of this new Marvel super team, is known for being a normal raccoon but he has the ability to speak, fly spaceships and shoot laser pistols.
Expert tactician Raccoon is the brains of the operation, and helps the group on its missions fighting space scum.
Cooper isn’t the only big name that signed on with Marvel’s Guardians. Vin Diesel also was confirmed to voice Groot, a big-talking tree man; Chris Pratt, mostly known for playing Andy Dwyer on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, is destined to voice Star-Lord, an alien-human hybrid, and Zoe Saldana from Avatar will voice Gamora, daughter of the alien tyrant Thanos (whom you might have recognized in the end credits of The Avengers).
This film seems to be headed in the right direction, seeing as how Marvel wants to make its movies a little more intergalactic, which will help Marvel’s cinematic universe expand farther than the boundaries of Earth.
Kevin Feige, president of production at Marvel, has previously stated he does not want this film to be like Star Wars and wants to “explore the other side of the existing Marvel Universe.”
Seeing that Guardians of the Galaxy will probably include new themes not seen in the space sci-fi genre, I am very excited to see what Guardians of the Galaxy’s creative team will come up with. Diverging from Star Wars-related themes is probably the right direction for Marvel seeing as how Disney already plans on releasing Star Wars: Episode VII the following summer.
The film is starting to look like a big hit, and if it is anything like the comic books then it will probably be one of the biggest blockbusters of the year.
Abdalah El-Barrad is a freshman studying economics and a columnist for The Post. Are you looking forward to Guardians of the Galaxy? Email him at ae738513@ohiou.edu
