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Guardians Of The Galaxy's Michael Rooker on Rocket Raccoon - SciFiNow

Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Michael Rooker on Rocket Raccoon

Michael Rooker on Guardian Of The Galaxy’s Rocket Raccoon and his character Yondu

Rocket Raccoon as he appears in the Marvel comics
Rocket Raccoon as he appears in the Marvel comics

Followers of Guardians Of The Galaxy director @JamesGunn will have seen the adorable images of the cast playing with raccoons, all in the name of research for the movie’s star: Rocket Raccoon.

However, he’s not as cute as his real life counterparts would have you believe, Michael Rooker exclusively reveals to SciFiNow: “Rocket and I don’t get along, he’s a bit abrupt and brash for my taste,” he laughs. “I probably have a little Merle in me still, because I would roast him over an open flame and eat him for supper!”

Having recently wrapped his role as redneck Merle Dixon on The Walking Dead Season 3 (available on DVD now), Rooker has been filming Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy. He is playing the part of Yondu, the blue-skinned hunter and tracker who was one of the founding members of the Guardians super group in the comic-books.

The cast of Guardians Of The Galaxy in their regular clothes
The cast of Guardians Of The Galaxy, with director James Gunn (fourth from left)

Don’t expect Yondu to be exactly as he appears in the panels, though, as Rooker continues: “The paparazzi have a bunch of photos of Yondu – I think Yondu was the first of the characters that got totally exposed – and you can see the character looks totally different from the comic.”

One of Yondu’s defining features have remained in tact, however: the blue skin. We wondered what caused Rooker more discomfort: wearing Merle’s Swiss Army appendage on the set of The Walking Dead, or being painted blue everyday for Guardians?

“I’m still sore from the Merle’s arm,” he tells SciFiNow. “That thing still bothers me, I couldn’t even imagine putting it back on right now, I’d be like ‘Oh no! Pleeease!’ But the blue is simple, it’s beautiful. The colours that we use in Guardians are just exquisite. When everything is put together – when you have wardrobe on and the lighting’s going – man oh man it’s beautiful, it’s going to look fabulous.”

The Walking Dead: The Complete Season 3 is available to own now on DVD for £27.50 or on Blu-ray for £29.99 from Amazon.co.uk. Guardians Of The Galaxy is due in cinemas 1 August 2014.