The first trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 revealed the final chapter of James Gunn’s trilogy features Baby Rocket Raccoon, an infant version of the bad-mouthed weapon specialist voiced by Bradley Cooper. While the trailer is not yet available online, Collider’s own Ross Bonaime attended Marvel Studio’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, offering a detailed description of the first footage from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

The movie’s first trailer reveals that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will explore Rocket’s childhood, explaining how he became the brilliant asshole we love so much. In the trilogy's first movie, we learn that Rocket is the product of a cruel experiment in which his body was dissected and enhanced with multiple pieces of technology. By featuring Baby Rocket Racoon, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 promises to tell the heartbreaking story of how the character went through the invasive surgical procedures that turned him into the killing machine he now is.

Baby Rocket’s story is probably connected to the High Evolutionary, the movie's main villain, played by Chukwudi Iwuji. The High Evolutionary is a scientist determined to create the perfect life form, which leads him to kidnap thousands of aliens across the galaxy, performing cruel experiments to enhance their biology or isolate each species' best traits. The presence of the High Evolutionary as we learn more about Baby Rocket’s fate is an essential clue about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 because it’s likely the poor raccoon was one of the villain’s subjects at some point.

guardians of the galaxy featured
Image via Marvel Studios

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Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame and their cosmic adventures with Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth) in Thor: Love and Thunder, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has the band of heroic misfits joining forces to save the universe from a new threat. Besides Iwuji, the threequel also added Will Poulter as Adam Warlock, a supposedly perfect being created by the Priestess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’s Maria Bakalova also joins the movie as the voice of Cosmo, the space dog. Crossing from DC to Marvel, we also have Daniela Melchior, who previously worked with Gunn in The Suicide Squad. Rounding up the newcomer cast is Superstore’s Nico Santos in an undisclosed role.

What's interesting is that Baby Rocket is not the first glimpse of a young version of an MCU character we've had; taking center stage in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Baby Groot was an immediate fan favorite and scene stealer, Across the Disney-verse at large, Baby Yoda, later revealed to be Grogu, was immediately etched in internet infamy upon release of The Mandalorian Season 1.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 also stars Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Dave Bautista as Drax, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, and Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot. Zoë Saldaña is set to return as Gamorra for Volume 3 as the leader of the Ravagers. The green warrior died during the events of Avengers: Infinity War, but a different variant of the character jumped into Earth-616 on Endgame.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters in May 2023. To learn more about the threequel, check our interview with Gunn below:

Find out more about what happened during Marvel Studio's Hall H panel: