Jolt, the dog who became a fan favorite as Lucky the Pizza Dog in 2021's Hawkeye, has made a new friend: Slate, who plays Cosmo the Space Dog in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.Jolt's official Instagram, which amassed thousands of followers by sharing behind-the-scenes photos from her role on Hawkeye last year, posted the photo of the two acting Golden Retrievers together to celebrate the release of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Cosmo appeared in the special as the newest member of the Guardians team, and is set to return in 2023's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Slate shared the role of Cosmo with actor Maria Bakalova, who voiced the character and provided some additional motion capture. "Having the chance to join the family of Marvel and especially the Guardians of the Galaxy, which was my first love in the MCU, was a dream come true," she said of taking the role.
Cosmo Is Marvel's Very Good Dog
Cosmo the Space Dog first appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a cameo in the first Guardians movie, an item in the Collector's museum on Knowhere. She was then seen in the post-credits scene licking the Collector's face, both of them having survived the explosion in the museum.
Director James Gunn explained why Cosmo is female in the MCU, despite being a male dog in the comics. The character's origin was a dog launched into space as part of 1960s Soviet experiments, who somehow thrived and gained telepathic powers. He was created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, and first appeared in Nova vol. 4 #8 (Jan. 2008). As the original Cosmo was a reference to Laika, a real Soviet space dog, Gunn said he was "just going back to the original source material" by gender-swapping the character.
While Cosmo required some additional motion capture work, turning Jolt into Lucky only required the visual effects team to digitally remove an eye. Director Rhys Thomas shared in an interview that he initially thought a real dog would cause too many challenges for filming, but Jolt's skill surprised him. "She was great. I was definitely dubious, and I had images of a CG dog. Genuinely, I can’t think of a moment we lost time because of Jolt. She was on it." Lucky the Pizza Dog was introduced in the 2012 Hawkeye comic series by Matt Fraction and David Aja, which inspired the TV series.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and Hawkeye Season 1 are both now streaming on Disney+.
Source: Instagram, Twitter