Guardians of the Galaxy 2 isn’t hitting theaters until May 2017, but fans of the 2014 blockbuster won’t have to wait until then to get new adventures featuring the intergalactic band of troublemakers. Later this year, Disney XD will air their Guardians of the Galaxy animated series, which will reportedly take place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite being on the small screen and not in live-action, the animated series is taking steps to make it feel just like the movie, namely with its cast.
Stephen Wacker, the vice president for current series at Marvel Animation Studios, told TV Insider that the Guardians of the Galaxy series’ cast were all chosen for their similar spirit to the film’s cast, providing noted voice actor Will Friedle as an example. Said Wacker:
We definitely went for—I’m making up a term here—‘feel-alikes.’ Will Friedle has the spirit that Chris Pratt brought to Star-Lord.
Friedle’s cast-mates include Kevin Michael Richardson as Groot, Trevor Devall as Rocket, Vanessa Marshall as Gamora and David Sobolov as Drax. All the actors have already given fans a taste of what their version of the Guardians will sound like, and while they don’t sound like clones of the live-action iterations, they do sound fairly close in tone and attitude to Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel.
As for what these “feel-alikes” will be doing, according to Marvel: "after finding a strange artifact keyed to Star-Lord’s DNA, the group discovers a treasure map leading to a powerful object known as the Cosmic Seed, which is capable of giving birth to the next universe.” Fearing that someone else will abuse its power, the Guardians set off on a treasure hunt to find the Cosmic Seed and destroy it. Along the way, they’ll run into Marvel mainstays like Loki, Thor, Thanos, The Collector and his brother The Grandmaster, the Inhumans (making this their second MCU appearance following Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and a resurrected Ronan. Wacker also said that Cosmo the space dog, the one who licked The Collector’s face in the first film’s post-credits scene, will also play a prominent role, calling him “a big part of our world.” And like his comic book incarnation, we’ll hear Cosmo telepathically speaking. (Please let it be in a Russian accent).
You can catch a sneak peek of the Guardians of the Galaxy animated series on Disney XD Saturday September 5 at 9 p.m. EST, followed by the premiere on Saturday, September 26 at 9:30 p.m. EST. Click here for a list of other multi-platform animated Guardians of the Galaxy content that will be arriving in the coming months.
