Rocket Looks Very Different in "Guardians Of The Galaxy" (2014) Concept Art By Ryan Meinerding

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper)

Check out Guardians of the Galaxy concept art by Ryan Meinerding!

It's "Flashback Friday" where I share concept art or storyboards from a classic science-fiction movie or show. This week we're flashing back to 2014 with "Guardians of the Galaxy".

One of the most talked about characters in the movie is Rocket aka Rocket Racoon. When he was being developed for the film James Gunn said they spent a lot of time working on him. "[Rocket Raccoon]’s more of a grounded, real little creature as opposed to a cartoonish thing," Gunn told, "Hey U Guys". "I’ve done a lot of studying with real raccoons, and we had real raccoons come in. We’ve done photography with them, I’ve played with raccoons, and fed raccoons, and dealt a lot with real raccoons to get some of the behaviour down, because it’s really, really important to me that Rocket Raccoon, who is the heart of the movie, is not a cartoon character, it’s not Bugs Bunny in the middle of The Avengers, it’s a real, little, somewhat mangled beast that’s alone. There’s no one else in the universe quite like him, he’s been created by these guys to be a mean-a** fighting machine."

Many artists worked on the look of the film and one of the talented artists recently shared some early development work for the film.

Ryan Meinerding is a professional character designer, concept artist and head of Marvel Studios Visual Development who's worked on Hollywood projects like Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Watchmen.

Click on the images to enlarge

Early Rocket Racoon Concept Art for "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014)


"This image was first shown very briefly at SDCC in Hall H when Guardians was announced," Meinerding said on his Instagram page. "It was one of the first attempts at figuring out what Rocket could look like. The final design was done by the awesome Charlie Wen.

Early Rocket Racoon and Star-Lord Concept Art for "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014)


"[Throwback] to a very early painting I did of Star-Lord and Rocket," Meinerding said. "This was done before [James Gunn] was brought on when we were coming up with ideas on our own. This was exploring what Rocket could look like if he was an alien."

See more of Ryan Meinerding's portfolio at his Instagram account.

Click on the links if you want to see more of Ryan Meinerding's work or Guardians of the Galaxy artwork on my blog.

About Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Official synopsis: "From Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster franchises of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, comes a new team–the Guardians of the Galaxy. An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits – Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon; Groot, a tree-like humanoid; the deadly and enigmatic Gamora; and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand–with the galaxy’s fate in the balance."
Directed by James Gunn
Cinematography by Ben Davis
Production Design by Charles Wood
"Guardians of the Galaxy" stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Benicio del Toro
"Guardians of the Galaxy" was released on August 01, 2014 (United States)

What do you think of the concept art? If you've seen Guardians of the Galaxy what do you think of the look?

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