James Gunn has taken to Twitter to reveal the inspiration behind the version of Cosmo the Space Dog which will appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Intended to be the final Guardians of the Galaxy film to feature the MCU’s current line-up of characters, as well as Gunn’s final time in the director’s chair for the space-faring franchise, GoTG 3 is set to premiere on May 5, 2023, during what is now known to be the MCU’s Phase 5 film slate. In addition to returning cast members Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, and Pom Klementieff, the film will also see Will Poulter appear as Adam Warlock and Peacemaker’s Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary.
Cosmo the Spacedog is a telepathic Soviet space dog created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lannin who, in the comics, serves as the security chief of the space station known as Knowhere and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy team. Cosmo has already appeared in cameo roles in both of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films and also appeared in the animated What If…? series. During Marvel Studios’ panel at San Diego Comic-Con, it was also revealed that Cosmo would be getting an expanded role in the upcoming threequel and would be voiced by Borat 2’s Maria Bakalova.
Since that announcement broke, some portions of the fandom have been quick to point out that in the original comics, Cosmo is a male dog, and some took issue with Maria’s casting. Gunn, however, has been quick to step in via social media to clarify that Cosmo was based on the real-life Russian space dog Laika who was a female dog and that he was “just going back to the original source material”. Check out his original Tweet below:
Click here to view the original post on Twitter
This, of course, is not the first time that some fans have taken issue with changes being made to Marvel characters throughout the MCU. Over the years Marvel Studios have made a number of character changes and gender swaps throughout their films, including Ant-Man and the Wasp’s Ghost and Black Widow’s Taskmaster. Even Gunn himself is known for taking liberties with his character’s origins, famously changing Peter Quill’s father to become Ego the Living Planet for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Overall, many of these changes have done little to negatively affect the quality of the finished products, and it seems unlikely that Cosmo’s own gender swap will have a major impact on Gunn's final MCU outing.
Moreover, Bakalova has already proven herself a talented comedic actress and she will undoubtedly bring much to the table as the voice of Cosmo. Ultimately, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is well known for not adhering blindly to the source comics when they feel the need to deviate to serve their own story purposes, and Gunn has proven time and again that he knows what he is doing. No doubt Bakalova’s Cosmo will be quick to win over fans when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 finally hits theaters next year.
Source: James Gunn
