James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Cast MCU Actors in New Roles
James Gunn regulars are sinking their "teefs" into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The third and final volume of Gunn's Marvel trilogy will end at the beginning: Vol. 3 will reveal the heart-breaking origin story of Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), who was torn apart, put back together, and turned into a "little monster" by the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). A new clip released by Collider reveals Rocket's childhood cyborg-critter friends from Counter-Earth: Lylla the Otter (Linda Cardellini), Floor the Rabbit (Mikaela Hoover), and Teefs the Walrus (Asim Chaudhry). Watch the clip below before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opens in theaters May 5th.
Gunn confirmed the trio of new Vol. 3 cast members on Twitter with the clip featuring Cardellini's Lylla, Hoover's Floor, Chaudhry's Teefs, and baby Rocket. "In all the early screenings their friendship is one of audiences' favorite aspects of the movie," Gunn tweeted Tuesday.
"The High Evolutionary has created them, and they know he's building this new world out there, this new society, and they're talking about how they're gonna go out there," Gunn told Collider of the High Evolutionary's supposedly perfect society of Counter-Earth. "And as they do that, they begin to name themselves, they give themselves names. Before that, at the beginning of the script, they're just Otter, Walrus, and Rabbit, and they give themselves their names."
Cardellini first appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Laura Barton, the (human) wife of Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton, in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Endgame, and Hawkeye. Cardellini previously starred as Mystery Inc.'s Velma in 2002's live-action Scooby-Doo and 2004 sequel Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed, both written by Gunn.
Hoover has collaborated with Gunn since his 2009 web series PG Porn, making her MCU debut in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy as the assistant to Nova Prime (Glenn Close). She also appeared in 2016's The Belko Experiment, which Gunn wrote and produced with his future DC Studios co-head Peter Safran, and the Gunn-directed DC movie The Suicide Squad.
Comedian-actor Chaudhry is best known for the BBC mockumentary series People Just Do Nothing and the BBC Studios comedy movie Click & Collect. Along with roles in DC's Wonder Woman 1984 and the Netflix series The Sandman, Chaudhry most recently appeared in The Honeymoon opposite Maria Bakalova, who voices the telepathic Cosmo the Spacedog in Vol. 3.
Starring Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, featuring Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, and Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary, Will Poulter as Adam Warlock, and Maria Bakalova as Cosmo, Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is in theaters May 5th.