Science Fiction icon Mark Hamill is allegedly back in negotiations to appear in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3. It was widely reported last year that Hamill had talks with director James Gunn, but what role they had discussed remained under wraps.
Of course, Gunn was famously fired by Disney last year over controversial tweets made a decade previously. Gunn was re-hired earlier this month, but no major casting news came about in the interim.
Now the site We Got This Covered is reporting that Hamill may in fact be in talks to play Rocket Raccoon’s creator. This could easily be an original character, or a take on secondary or tertiary characters from the Marvel Universe.
In the comics, Rocket has no specific creator. He came from a planet called Halfworld, in which animals were genetically enhanced by robotic users to have human-like characteristics. Rocket served as a law enforcement officer for the Keystone Quadrant, thus literally making him a Keystone Cop. He and his then counterpart Wal Russ (Yes, a talking walrus) once infiltrated the planet to rescue their friend Princess Lynx from Lord Dyvyne. They battled with Blackjack O’Hare’s Black Bunny Brigade (Yes, a mercenary group of bunnies) while making their escape.
Rocket was also at some point held captive by a villain called The Stranger, and managed to escape his clutches.
To be clear, these are all speculative possibilities based on Rocket’s history. The true role Hamill will play, if hired, has not been publicly discussed.
Hamill is no stranger to the comic book world. He most famously provided the voice of The Joker for many years in various Batman productions. He portrayed James Jesse, aka The Trickster in the short lived 1990 Flash TV series. A role he recently reprised for the current CW show. He’s also voiced various characters including Wolverine and Hobgoblin for Marvel, and Darth Bane for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Currently, he is a regular in Season 2 of The History Channel’s series Knightfall.
So what character could the Jedi Joker be playing on the big screen? Personally, our money is on the mercenary bunny…