MCM Comic Con Birmingham: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Actors Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn Panel Reviews

BIRMINGHAM, England -- MCM Comic Con was previously known for the huge effort fans put in to their outlandish cosplays from comics-to-films-to-anime and everything in between. But over the past few years MCM has gone the way of many conventions and now boasts of big names they can pull in for their cons that happen multiple times up and down the UK in a year.

Their first convention of the year kicked off in Birmingham with a range of guests including three Marvel guests: Brianna Hildebrand, Michael Rooker, and Sean Gunn, better known to fans as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Yondu, Kraglin and the motion capture performance of Rocket Raccoon, respectively. I had the opportunity to meet all three for a quick autograph, get a picture with Hildebrand and attend all their panels this past Saturday in Birmingham.

Michael Rooker Panel

If you are ever attending a convention that has Michael Rooker as a guest then you cannot afford to miss his panel. Rooker is not a fan of doing a conventional panel, sitting at a table on a stage and taking some questions from the audience. He takes it upon himself to run (literally) through the crowds of people to let people ask him questions face-to-face, the whole time cracking jokes and giving fans the opportunity of getting up close to Yondu himself. Putting Rooker’s panel on paper will never do it justice as the atmosphere in the crowd is electric but he does occasionally give serious answers and provide insight.

For example, Rooker explains how his favourite scene from both Guardians of the Galaxy films is likely the same as many a fan. His favourite being the Mary Poppins scene at which point he has a few fans huddle around him to shout the famous quote into the mic with him, "I’m Mary Poppins y’all!” 

He told the enamoured crowd how writer and director James Gunn made him stop reading the Guardians comics because Yondu on screen was going to be different from the Yondu in the comics. Shortly after which he darted across the entire hall to a young fan in a full Yondu costume, blue face included. The young fan told Rooker how he cried when Yondu died in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2, at which point Rooker picked the young fan up and let him know that Yondu can never die and his energy is flying through the universe in his arrow. 

When asked if he took anything home from set, Rooker let the crowd know, “I definitely did not steal Yondu’s arrow.” He then got the crowd into a whistling frenzy as he explained that he did all his own whistling on set, but it was enhanced to make it sound more alien like. 

When asked who his favourite Chris is — Evans, Hemsworth or Pratt — he quickly runs away laughing and avoids asking the question. 

To finish his panel he sped down an entire row of the audience and had them each ask a question, one of which was the inevitable query of, "will Yondu be in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR?" To which Rooker responded in a split second with an abrupt "NO" and quickly moved on. But it’s safe to assume that if he was then he wouldn’t be giving away any secrets.

Sean Gunn Panel

In contrast to the insanity of Michael Rooker’s panel minutes before, Sean Gunn took the more known panel approach of staying on the stage and taking questions from the crowd, instead of running through the crowd.

Very early on Gunn discussed doing the motion capture for Rocket and mentioned how he has done the work for Rocket in both upcoming films: AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR and AVENGERS 4; perhaps unintentionally letting the audience know that Rocket will make it through AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR and still be around for AVENGERS 4.

He goes on to explain how difficult doing the work for Rocket is and how that was the hardest part of the first GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, trying to figure out how they can make a raccoon seem realistic and not cartoonish. The scene that sticks out in particular as being difficult for him to shoot is when Yondu and Rocket are locked away and they ask Baby Groot to bring Yondu his replacement fin.

Sean had high compliments for his brother, James, and mentions to the crowd how all the songs were personally chosen by James for the films. Sean knew they had something special with the first film, and did not expect it to bomb, despite the trepidation that surrounded the project at the time.

When asked about the 10-year Marvel Studios photoshoot, which recently took place, he said how it was a huge honour to be a part of it and jokes how it was great other than the pompous Tom Holland. He is quick to clarify how Holland is the nicest guy you would hope to meet.

As the panel was winding down a distinct voice is heard from behind a curtain, as Rooker had got hold of a microphone and asks in a baby voice “how was it working with Mikey Wooker?” The panel finished with some friendly banter between the two of them, with Sean jokingly saying how Rooker is hard to work with.

Written by Ciaran Hayward, Convention Writer


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