Bradley Cooper, a Jenkintown/Abington native, appears in the new Superman movie as Jor-El, the biological father of Kal-El a.k.a. Superman/Clark Kent.

The movie is written and directed by James Gunn. Cooper, 50, voiced Rocket Raccoon in all three of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies. 

“Really, Bradley’s just doing me a favor,” Gunn, 58, explained in a June 30 interview with Jake’s Takes. “He’s a friend. We’ve stayed in close contact since the Guardians movies, and I admire him greatly as an actor and as a director.”

From People Magazine’s coverage:

The Oscar nominee’s cameo occurs only minutes into the new Superman, as the titular hero is taken into the Fortress of Solitude in Antarctica. Alongside him as Superman’s mother Lara Lor-Van is Westworld actress Angela Sarafyan. The two are glimpsed in hologram form, relaying an inspiring message in Kryptonian they sent along with Superman when he was an infant sent to Earth from their doomed planet Krypton. 

Inviting Cooper to join Superman was apparently a low-key affair, as Gunn recalled on Jake’s Takes. “I just said, ‘Hey, will you do me a favor? Come down, go to England, we’re going to shoot you in a 3D environment, make a hologram of you, and you can play Jor-El.’ He was like, ‘OK.’”

The film is in theaters now.

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Photo: Rebecca Sapp/Getty