Although Cosmo may have appeared in every volume of Guardians of the Galaxy, it wasn’t until the Holiday Special that she actually spoke for the first time. The character had a prominent role during the hour long Disney film and was given an even more important role in the third installment. But who is the voice behind the dog? And where have we seen or heard them before?
Although Cosmo was supposed to be male in the comics, James Gunn made the decision to give the character a female voice which inexplicably managed to upset a small minority of fans. This change was made in honor of Laika the dog, who was sent into space by the Soviets in the 1960’s, and was also the original inspiration for the character. Cosmo is voiced by Maria Bakalova whose voice you may recognise if you’ve got a good ear.
Where do we know her from?
Her first widely recognised appearance was as Borat’s daughter in the Subsequent Moviefilm for which she received a huge deal of praise from fans who loved her character. She even won a critics choice award for best supporting actress as well as being nominated for multiple other awards for the breakout role.
Since Borat 2 she has appeared in a few well known comedies including the comedy slasher film, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies as well as Judd Apatow comedy: The Bubble. As for her future, she has plenty of work lined up including another gig with Guardians director, James Gunn. She is set to voice a character from the new DCU in the upcoming animated series Creature Commandos. The show will follow a lesser known team from DC and it’s set to release sometime in 2024 although there is no specific date at the time of writing.
Bakalova will provide the voice for Ilana Rostivic, a new character created especially for the DCU Creature Commandos series. As is the norm for Gunn by now, he’s continuing the trend of making a home for his Marvel family over at DC. Aside from that, she has plenty of other live-action work coming up soon including a role alongside Eva Green in the action film, Dirty Angels.
Will she return to voice Cosmo?
Although nothing has been confirmed as of right now, it’s very possible that Bakalova could return to voice the character once more. Disney has kept pretty quiet about the future of the Guardians, but it’s likely we will see Gunn’s version of these characters pop up again from time to time. So it’s more than possible we could see Bakalova return to voice Cosmo.