Well isn’t he just precious?

Marvel’s just revealed the live action model for their resident interstellar quadruped Rocket Raccoon (from GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, you know, in case you’ve been living under a rock).

Behold Oreo.

While admittedly not as foul mouthed or trigger happy as his silver screen counterpart, this little dude bares a striking similarity to the core aesthetic of Rocket Raccoon. The similarities are uncanny!

Here’s a comment from his owners (which has been translated from Russian, so apologies for the Gorbachev cadence):

“We are happy to share the news, our raccoon Oreo got his chance to star. He can work in James Gunn’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, and will be a model for the Rocket Raccoon. This news is very pleased us and we are so happy to be a part of this project. All, and especially James Gunn, refer to the Oreo with kindness and respect, and as always, our little friend is attracting attention to himself. We are very grateful for this opportunity and can not wait for the film.”

According to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY director James Gunn, Oreo’s acting ability just wasn’t up to snuff, so the studio decided to use the creature simply for motion capture. But who knows, hopefully in the sequel Oreo’ll be mature enough to handle the stress of the big set lights, and he’ll turn in a proper live action performance.

One can only dream.

Alright, that was all obviously nonsense, BUT… just to make it clear, this little guy is the actual model that Marvel’s used for Rocket Raccoon. I didn’t want my cheesy jokes to detract from today’s dose of cute, cuddly news.

SOURCE: Guard The Galaxy