James Gunn has received the “Not a Number” Award from PETA to recognize his efforts in speaking up against animal abuse via Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Mild spoilers ahead for those who are yet to watch the latest MCU film.
The writer and director was given the award following his telling of Rocket Racoon’s origin story in Vol. 3, which involved abusive and painful experimentations during his time with the High Evolutionary. “Through Rocket, James Gunn has put a face, a name, and a personality on the millions of vulnerable animals being cycled through laboratories as we speak,” PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange said in a statement. “PETA is celebrating this as the best animal rights film of the year for helping audiences see animals as individuals and suggesting that just because we can experiment on them doesn’t mean that we should.”
Vol. 3 sees the return of Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and Sean Gunn, and also stars Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter, Elizabeth Debicki, Maria Bakalova and Sylvester Stallone. It is billed as the final installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.
Elsewhere in entertainment, a new Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse TV spot hears voiceovers from Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland.
