New Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 clip reveals heartbreaking look at Rocket's origins

If you’ve been following the rag-tag group of heroes known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, you know that they’ve all been witness to trauma before coming together to form their family unit. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the end of the line (for now, at least) of the galaxy’s most unlikely group of heroes, and it’s very likely that tears will be shed because goodbyes are always hard. Fans are already struggling with their emotions as a new clip from the movie reveals how Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) got his name.

Ten years ago, if you weren’t a fan of Marvel Comics you probably wouldn’t think you’d ever be emotionally attached to a genetically modified raccoon and a giant tree creature, but 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy introduced Rocket and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and suddenly James Gunn’s comic book movie about an obscure team in the Marvel universe was front and center. 

As the trilogy comes to an end, things are about to take a dark turn. We all knew it was coming, but a new clip featuring Rocket’s early days confirms it.

Take a look at the clip below:

If you haven’t read Rocket’s comic book origin story, you know from the movie that he was engineered to be the way he is. The clip reveals a look at some of the other creatures who were subjected to this horrible bioengineering. There’s Lylla the Otter (voiced by Linda Cardellini), Teefs the Walrus (voiced by Asim Chaudhry) and Floor the Rabbit (voiced by Mikaela Hoover).

Gunn explains to Collider that the creatures seen in the clip are best friends. “I think it’s a really beautiful scene with them…where they talk about going into the sky, in the world, which they’ve never experienced.” They’ve been kept in cages, subject to painful and terrifying experiments that have left some of them unable to move. Though it’s horrifying and hard to watch (even if it’s entirely CGI), Gunn still finds beauty in it. With Floor, “her little rabbit legs don’t work, they just dangle there, and she’s got these big metal spider legs growing out of her, and this mouth plate that is a speaker that her voice comes out of, but she’s adorable.”

We’ll likely learn more about how these four creatures ended up this way in the movie, but the brief version is that they’re the creation of the Guardians’ most terrifying villain to date: The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). Gunn notes that Marvel fans “despise” this villain more than any other because of what he’s doing. “I think [the hate] is a result of the fact he’s basically being cruel to animals.”

The scene in the clip is meant to reveal these creatures’ hope that they will one day move past where they are. In Rocket’s case, his name — and his dream — end up coming true. We’ll have to wait and see what happens to the rest of his friends in the movie. 

Not surprisingly, fans took to social media to seek comfort from other fans because there if that clip is any indication, you'll need to bring a box of tissue with you to the theater. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 flies into theaters on May 5.