Guardians of the Galaxy’s Sean Gunn Reveals How Long He Knew Rocket’s Origin Story (Exclusive)

As much as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 advanced the cosmic team’s narrative forward, James Gunn’s threequel biggest effort came in the form of coloring in one of its character’s black and white past. For nearly a decade, audiences have been kept in the dark regarding Rocket’s origins, with the sentient raccoon only giving brief, cryptic hints at how he was transformed into the creature he is in the present day. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 revealed that the Bradley Cooper-voiced hero was made into who he is by the High Evolutionary, a scientific sociopath obsessed with creating a perfect society.

As noted, seeds for Rocket’s beginnings were planted as far back as 2014, and the story fans see on screen today is just about exactly what was planned from the jump. Sean Gunn, who has done all of Rocket’s motion capture and voices a younger version of the character in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, told ComicBook.com that Rocket’s origins were first communicated to him ten years ago.

“I’ve known it pretty much from the very beginning,” Sean said. “James told me when we were shooting the first movie what Rocket’s backstory was, where he was from, his relationship to the High Evolutionary and it’s all stayed pretty consistent.”

Sean added that some specifics were still fuzzy, but he was aware of the general gist from day one.

“I didn’t know 100% of the details, but I knew more or less where he came from early into the process of shooting the first movie,” Sean continued.

Marvel Studios has long been championed for its long-term storytelling, but it is still a rare feat that an early idea can remain true when the time comes around to finally execute it. 2008’s Iron Man made good on its “Avengers Initiative” tease four years after Nick Fury confronted Tony Stark at 10880 Malibu Point. 2012’s The Avengers planted a Thanos tease that was fully realized at the tail end of the decade. 

Those examples aside, not every planned story is able to make its way to the big screen. That initial Fury dialogue to Stark had the SHIELD director discussing “radioactive bug bites” and “assorted mutants” but it had to be axed as those character rights existed outside of the Marvel Studios realm. Even within the Guardians franchise, James plan to use Ego the Living Planet in Vol. 2 almost didn’t happen due to that character existing under the 20th Century Fox umbrella. Fortunately, Marvel was able to trade Negasonic Teenage Warhead to Fox to be used in the Deadpool movies in exchange for the evil entity that would be used as Peter Quill’s father.

Regarding Rocket, all the pieces for his origin seemed to be in Marvel’s sandbox from the beginning, but it’s still worth noting that the story was able to go off without any unforeseen obstacles. As James told ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 once planned to kill Gamora, but those plans changed when the Russo Brothers notified him of their plans for her come Avengers: Infinity War. Rocket went through the ringer outside of the Guardians franchise, but the fan-favorite raccoon was able to make it to Vol. 3 and realize his decade-long developing story.

Rocket’s full origin story can be seen in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is now playing in theaters.