James Gunn Drew Each Of Rocket's Animal Friends In Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 By Hand

The following post contains spoilers for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3." 

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is still in theaters, and we've finally gotten the backstory for Rocket (Sean Gunn/Bradley Cooper). Some fans knew his origin from the comics, but whether you expected it or not, the tale of a young Rocket and his friends Lylla (Linda Cardellini), Floor (Mikaela Hoover), and Teefs (Asim Chaudhry) is heartbreaking and difficult to watch. Part of the reason is how accurately and realistically these creatures — an altered otter, bunny, and walrus — are rendered. To refresh your memory (if it isn't burned in there like it is in mine), Rocket was captured as a young raccoon and painfully modified by the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) to become the Rocket we met in the first "Guardians" film. 

Writer/director James Gunn recently did an interview with Collider in April 2023 where he was asked if there was any pushback from Marvel and Disney on the storyline. Gunn spoke about the reaction from the studio to that part of the film and revealed that he was the one who drew Rocket's band of furry friends. 

"I really don't ever remember any resistance," James Gunn told Collider about Disney/Marvel's reaction to the animal abuse elements in the film. "I think that people were really good with it. I mean, there was a time when I talked to those guys about just doing the Rocket story, like the third movie would actually just be Rocket. Then we decided to do it as a Guardians movie with the Rocket story inside of that. But I don't remember any resistance."

"Guardians Vol. 3" did have a whole lot of Rocket's backstory, but the rest of the film balanced it out. I think it had to have more than just the emotional Rocket narrative because the scenes with him and his friends were very difficult for some people (myself included) to watch. Gunn also spoke about drawing Lylla, Floor, and Teefs. He said: 

"I did draw all of the animals, I know that. I actually drew each one of those animals and put them in the script. So the drawings of all those creatures are in the script, Lylla and Floor and Teefs, because I had a very specific way that I saw them looking. But no, Marvel was pretty great, they just kind of let me do my thing. I think they were happy with the first two movies, so they just kind of let me do my thing with this and never were intrusive."

Putting my animal sensitivity aside for a moment, I want to say that if you have a writer/director who gives you work like the first two "Guardians of the Galaxy" films, you should be letting them do their thing. 

James Gunn is no stranger to drawing for film. He often does his own storyboards — in addition to working with storyboard artists — as he's posted about in past (now-deleted) tweets. He also described his storyboarding process in a September 2021 interview with Collider. "Every shot in my movies is hand drawn first," he explained. "Many of the shots — about one-third — take anywhere from two to 10 cards or more because I'm drawing the movement. So I probably end up with about 3,000 cards." 

In fact, Gunn said he was in the midst of storyboarding as of a tweet on May 20, 2023. He was talking about people tweeting film rumors at him and said he can't take as much time to debunk them for several reasons, including the fact that he was currently working on storyboarding "Superman: Legacy." As you likely know if you've consumed any news over the past several months, Gunn, along with producer Peter Safran, has taken over the DC Universe at Warner Bros. Discovery, and "Superman: Legacy" is one of the tentpole titles coming in 2025. 

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is currently in theaters.