As if being a blockbuster star in franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Jurassic Park/World wasn’t a big enough deal, Chris Pratt is also now expanding his voice acting resume following his time as Emmet Brickowski in the LEGO movies. In addition to voicing Mario in Illumination’s Super Mario Bros. animated movie, it was revealed in November that he’s been tapped to voice comic strip icon Garfield too. Now word’s come in that Pratt will be joined in the animated Garfield movie by another MCU star: Samuel L. Jackson.
The Nick Fury to Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord (though the two of them haven’t actually shared screen time outside of Tony Stark’s funeral in Avengers: Endgame) has been brought aboard to voice a surprising new character in the animated Garfield movie: the title protagonist’s father, Vic. So now there are two people aboard this project following The Wrap’s casting update, although there’s still no word on who’s voicing Garfield’s owner, Jon Arbuckle. The new Garfield movie is directed by The Emperor’s New Groove’s Mark Dindal and written by Finding Nemo’s David Reynolds.
Samuel L. Jackson is no stranger to the world of voice acting, with some of his biggest credits in that field including Frozen in the Incredibles movies, Zog in Astro Boy, Whiplash in Turbo and alternate versions of Nick Fury in the Disney+ series What If… ?. Along with Garfield now on Jackson’s list of upcoming projects, he’ll also be heard later this year as Jimbo in Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank. As far as live-action goes, Jackson’s recently been seen in Spiral, Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, The Protégé and The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, and he’ll be back as Nick Fury for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels and the Secret Invasion limited series.
This animated Garfield movie will mark the third time the comic strip character created by Jim Davis is starring in a theatrical tale, as Bill Murray previously voiced the character in 20024’s Garfield and 2008’s Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. However, in this instance, the movie Chris Pratt and Samuel L. Jackson are in is entirely animated, whereas the Murray-led movies were live-action/animated hybrids. That being said, Garfield did score three fully-animated direct-to-video movies between 2007 and 2009, and he’s also starred in multiple animated TV shows and primetime specials.
More to come…