Today’s been a big day for Guardians and the Galaxy Vol. 3 news; after a new, heart-wrenching teaser was released, James Gunn revealed some new cast members from the short clip. We covered how one cast member isn’t exactly new to the MCU but for some of the other actors, like Asim Chaudhry, this will be their induction into the universe.
The short clip shows us Rocket and three other talking animals lying in their respective cages and daydreaming about better days to come. Spurred by Lylla the otter, the animals decide to give themselves proper names instead of the number sequences their captors use to address them. According to a confirmation tweet from Gunn, Chaudhry is voicing Teefs, the walrus friend in the clip. From what we’ve seen so far, Teefs seems like a sweet, albeit dim, walrus who chooses his name based on his protruding tusks. It’s yet to be seen if Teefs and the rabbit Floor will make an appearance in the present, but as we know Lylla will show up, we think it’s likely we’ll see what happened to Teefs.
Chaudhry may best be known to audiences from his recent turn in Netflix’s The Sandman, based on the DC comic written by Neil Gaiman. In the show, Chaudhry plays Abel, one of the biblical brothers along with Cain. Unlike their biblical counterparts, the brothers (who are recurring characters in the original Sandman comics) perpetually reenact Abel’s murder at the hands of his brother while living in the Dreaming. Abel is kind to a fault and readily accepts his fate, acting as a foil for his bad-tempered brother.
While Chaudhry gained popularity for his role in The Sandman, he was acting long before the Netflix series. Along with his college friends — Hugo Chegwin, Steve Stamp, and Allan Mustafa — Chaudhry co-created the BBC mockumentary People Just Do Nothing. The show started out as a series of YouTube skits created by the friends before being picked up by the producer of the British version of The Office. Chaudhry starred as the eccentric entrepreneur Chabuddy G and leader of Kurupt FM, a pirate radio station in the mostly improvised series. The show lasted for five seasons from 2014 to 2018 and the actors reprised their roles in the 2021 movie People Just Do Nothing: Big in Japan.
The British comedian continued to appear in films and television after his show ended, notably in the 2018 short film Love Pool (which Chaudhry also wrote and directed), the made-for-TV comedy Click & Collect, and the interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. With his new role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Chaudhry is definitely one to watch.