Director James Gunn called upon a Guardian of the Galaxy to play Jor-El in his Superman movie.
Rocket Raccoon voice actor Bradley Cooper plays the biological father of Kal-El, Gunn revealed during the L.A. press junket for the film. Rumors of Cooper's casting first surfaced earlier this year.
“Really, Bradley’s just doing me a favor,” Gunn told Jake’s Takes (via ComicBook). “He’s a friend. We’ve stayed in close contact since the Guardians movies, and I admire him greatly as an actor and as a director.”
“I just said, ‘Hey, will you do me a favor? Come down, go to England, we’re going to shoot you in a 3D environment, make a hologram of you, and you can play Jor-El,’” Gunn said. “He was like, ‘Okay.’”
A holographic Jor-El makes sense as Gunn has previously said his Superman is not an origin film, and there’s past precedence for a holographic Jor-El in past Superman films.
Cooper voiced Rocket Raccoon in Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy as well as in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Other past Gunn collaborators who pop up in Superman include those who voice the robots in the Fortress of Solitude. Pom Klementieff was Mantis in the MCU, Michael Rooker played Yondu in the Guardians trilogy and Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, Gunn’s wife Jennifer Holland stars in Peacemaker, and Alan Tudyk voiced various characters in Creature Commandos.
Gunn's brother Sean Gunn, who was also in the Guardians trilogy, is also in Superman as Maxwell Lord.
Look for IGN’s interview with Gunn and the cast of Superman closer to the film’s release.
For more Superman coverage, find out James Gunn’s explanation for why Clark Kent’s glasses work as a disguise, why All-Star Superman is a massive influence on the new movie, and how James Gunn’s Superman reinvents the look and feel of Kal-El’s world.
