Bradley Cooper Could Voice Rocket Raccoon

With early footage from James Gunn’s **Guardians Of The Galaxy wowing the crowd at this year’s Comic-Con, plenty of the chatter afterwards was speculation about who he’ll cast as the voice of gun-toting Guardians stalwart Rocket Raccoon. Now Latino Review claims to have dug up the leading contender, reporting that Bradley Cooper has been offered the role of the genetically-tinkered warrior.

As of right now, it’s just an offer, but Cooper is in talks to take on vocal duties for Rocket. He’s an intriguing choice for the part, and would serve to be yet another quirky cog in Gunn’s machine for the movie, currently shooting in London.

If Cooper signs, he’ll be joining a cast that already includes Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Benicio del Toro, Karen Gillan, Lee Pace, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Djimon Hounsou, Ophelia Lovibond, Michael Rooker and the most recent recruit, Gregg Henry. At least, he'll be technically joining the cast, but will probably do his recording in a voice booth somewhere alone. Guardians, of course, is the tale of a group of renegades, thieves, fighters, assassins and others who band together to form a hero team. In spaaace… It's in our cinemas on August 1 next year.

In other Marvel casting news, Bleeding Cool first reported (and now the Hollywood Reporter is confirming{ =nofollow}) that Elizabeth Olsen is in negotiations to join Avengers: Age Of Ultron as Scarlet Witch. A powerful woman with the ability to twist probability to manipulate outcomes by throwing “hexes” (and later in life to alter reality itself) she’s the sister of super-fast Quicksilver, who will also be cropping up to initially cause problems for our heroes. There’s no solid word on casting for Quicksilver, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the current hot favourite. You can get a full briefing about their history (which will change for the movie) right here.

If she does lock down a deal, Olsen would seem to fit right in with the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson and the rest, especially given her proven acting chops. Avengers: Age Of Ultron, which sees the team mostly going up against the maniacal mechanoid (plus their own fresh differences), is set for release on May 1, 2015.