Sean Gunn Confirms He’s Retired From Playing Rocket Raccoon in the MCU: ‘I’m Too Old’

Whether Sean Gunn will return to the MCU after joining his brother over in the DCU remains to be seen. But if Gunn does go back to Marvel, it won’t be as Rocket Raccoon. “Since I’ve turned 50 a couple of years ago, I am retired from playing Rocket,” Gunn said. “Not that they’ve called. But if they did, I don’t think that I could do the motion reference anymore for Rocket. I think I’m too old.” Gunn appeared on Brandon Davis’ video podcast “Main Character” ahead of the Oct. 2 release of his new film “Appofeniacs.” There, Gunn spoke about his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where he played two roles in James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise. Sean both portrayed the Ravager Kraglin, who takes over for Michael Rooker’s Yondu after his death, and performed the motion capture reference for Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper). But Sean said the years added up when doing the latter of those two roles. “Everyone thinks it’s my knees, but it was really my feet and my ankles because I’m like in a catcher’s crouch, and I’m pivoting a lot on my points of contact on the ground,” he explained. “I’m doing a lot of pivoting on my ankles and feet, and over the years, it was, I think it had a little bit of an effect on my physiology. My knees are fine.” You can watch the full interview below. Between his appearances in “Avengers: Endgame” and “Thor: Love and Thunder,” Gunn took on a role in the DC universe by portraying Weasel (another mocap role, this time with Gunn providing the voice as well in brother James’ “The Suicide Squad.” Though that film was part of the old DCEU, some of its characters have made their way over to the new James Gunn-run DCU, with Weasel appearing in the animated series “The Creature Commandos” (Sean also voices G.I. Robot in that series). In his brother’s inaugural DCU film “Superman,” Gunn appeared as Maxwell Lord, the owner of the Justice Gang, before later reprising that role in the second season of “Peacemaker.” It’s unclear what the future of James Gunn’ spacefaring superhero team will be after he concluded his trilogy (and seemingly his time in the MCU) with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” Aside from that film’s promise that “Star-Lord will return,” audiences have no clue if or when characters like Rocket could pop up again. “Give a younger actor a shot at it,” the younger Gunn encouraged.