While it’s unlikely that any other casting announcements will top Ben Affleck as Batman for the next little while, Marvel appears to be on the verge of finalizing their line-up for James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Earlier this month Vin Diesel broke the news that he would be providing the voice of Groot, an alien tree-like member of the team who only says “I Am Groot!” over and over again. That left just one more major role up for grabs: the equally absurd Rocket Raccoon, an anthropomorphic raccoon from the planet Halfworld in the Keystone Quadrant. As a result of the obvious comedy inherent to the character, at one point Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey were rumoured to be under consideration. However, as it turns out, the role will likely go to The Hangover star Bradley Cooper instead.

The news was originally broken by Latino Review, who reported earlier this week that an offer had been made to Bradley Cooper. The news has since been verified by The Wrap, who claim that he is now in “early discussions” for the part. It will be the first time that he has voiced an animated character and it is yet another high-profile gig for an actor who is currently getting amazing opportunities coming from every direction. (Based on early footage of Rocket Raccoon shown at Comic-Con and D23 this year, the character will apparently look like a real raccoon as opposed to a stylized cartoon.)

On a related note, Kevin Feige also recently revealed that the main villain of Guardians of the Galaxy will not be Thanos, but rather Ronan The Accuser. That means nothing to me, but apparently he is a member of the Kree (the alien race who were at war with the Skrulls). Either way, one thing’s for certain: this is going to be one of the weirdest comic book movies we’ve ever seen.