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Sean Gunn has played Rocket Raccoon on set for three Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Avengers films and the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas special.

But it's the end of an era.

Gunn said he likely will no longer play the anthropomorphic genetically enhanced raccoon who serves as the Guardians' marksman and weapons expert. 

"I think I'm officially retired from playing Rocket Raccoon on set," he said.

Gunn stood in on set as Rocket, who was voiced by Bradley Cooper, and got his tragic backstory explored in Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3.

Gunn played both Rocket and the Ravager Kraglin on set in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies his brothers James Gunn director. He says at Fan Epo Chicago the scenes he had to shoot as both Rocket and Kraglin were the trickiest in his acting career, requiring intense focus on concentration.

While the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 teased that Star-Lord will return and Rocket was leading a new iteration of the Guardians with Adam Warlock and a revamped roster, no future Guardians of the Galaxy sequels are now in development.

But now the Gunn brothers have migrated over to DC. James Gunn has creative control over the just-launched DC Universe that supplants the DCEU and just directed the summer blockbuster Superman. 

Sean Gunn has three roles in the DC Universe: Weasel who last appeared in The Suicide Squad, G.I. Robot in Creature Commandoes, and Maxwell Lord, who debuted in Superman and appears in season 2 of Peacemaker. He says at Fan Expo Chicago once the characters are in the DC Universe they can pop up at any time.

He says at FAn Expo Rocket Raccoon required a collaborative process to create that he was proud to be part of.

"Rocket is one of the most difficult characters to be fully realized on screen. As a CGI character, he's very tricky," he says. "I've always thought of it as a relay race where James writes the script, he hands the baton to me, I act on set, I hand the baton to the special effects team, they start the graphics to create the character and then Bradley Cooper provides an amazing vocal performance. Everything comes together to make the character fully realized. I'm proud of the work we did. I'm proud to be part of it."

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters