Avengers: Rocket Raccoon Owes An Infinity War Gag To A Young Marvel Fan
When handling one of the biggest superhero movies ever made, you'd be forgiven for applying the occasional tweak here and there to turn it from a decent event into a great one. That's what happened with "Avengers: Infinity War," the film that set a new milestone for the comic book genre and even took some feedback from audiences to slightly polish it up. In the Blu-Ray-DVD commentary, directors Joe and Anthony Russo, along with the film's screenwriters, Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus, dropped the interesting little nugget that a young test audience member provided their input to a scene involving Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper). The suggestion was so good that it ended up actually making it into the final cut.
After Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Rocket, and Groot (Vin Diesel) make their immense entry in the Battle of Wakanda, our favorite trash panda takes out droves of enemies and absolutely loves it. Markus refers to the opposition as Space Outriders. However, Anthony Russo quickly chimes in and calls them "space dogs," as described by Rocket. It turns out this was the fun alteration that happened thanks to some outside comments.
Russo proved that the audience feedback counted when it came to Avengers: Infinity War
Seemingly out of the loop to the adjustment in question, Stephen McFeely was unaware of the revised line. It was up to the Russos to fill him in. "Well, there was a focus group after one of the test screenings," explained Anthony Russo. "Somebody was commenting on something that happened in this section of the film, and he said, "You know those 'space dogs'?" He referred to them as 'space dogs.'"
The term seemingly tickled half of the dynamic directing duo, and they settled on adding it to the final film. Joe Russo elaborated, "He [Anthony] thought it was hilarious, so he incorporated it into Bradley Cooper's read." This minor tweak from a fan ended up sticking firmly in Rocket's lingo moving forward, though, with Anthony advising that, "Now, Rocket refers to them as 'space dogs' when he's shooting at them. He's like, 'Come on, space dogs!'" It's not the first time a fan's input has altered a line, of course. One classic bit of Marvel lore is how a Make-A-Wish visitor to the "Thor: Ragnarok" set came up with the iconic line, "He's a friend from work!" This proves that to Marvel, fan feedback really does matter.