New character featured in explosive Guardians of the Galaxy concept art

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Who would’ve thought a movie about a bunch of intergalactic misfits including, but not limited to, a talking raccoon and his gigantic tree-friend, would be the monster hit it ended up being? No one did, that’s who. But it was. In fact, it was almost too much of a hit. Soon the team known as the Guardians of the Galaxy would be plucked from obscurity and rocketed into the stratosphere of superhero stardom—like a Midwestern girl taken to Hollywood to be in the motion picture business. So it would be an understatement to say the pressure is on.

Come the San Diego Comic-Con next week we will no doubt be treated to a hefty dose of goodies from the movie that have come as a result of that pressure—but why wait till then? EW got a hold of a piece of concept art from GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 that features the best look at the cast yet, as well as a new addition to the gang, Mantis (Pom Klementieff).

Take a look!

As you can see the gang is continuing to do epic things, like striking cool poses without acknowledging the explosion behind them. Notable are some new costumes, like Star Lord’s (Chris Pratt) chest plate, Gamora’s (Zoe Saldana) sleek new jacket, Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) jet pack, while Drax (Dave Bautista) and Groot (Vin Diesel) continue to not wear shirts because f@ck shirts.

The biggest change though is the addition of Mantis, the half-Vietnamese, half-German character with telekinetic powers mixed with martial arts badassery and antennas. Executive producer Jonathan Schwartz spoke about her outsider status in terms of her dynamic with the gang:

“She has never really experienced social interaction. Everything she learns about dealing with people, she learns from the Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a very weird group to learn your social intricacies from.”

In the comics she usually has green skin, but here she seems very not green. Her character arc in the comics has her born on Earth (notice there are probably not a lot of Vietnamese or Germans in space), but was left with a sect of the Kree by her father while still on Earth. My guess is that her presence will tie into Lord’s background story (also from Earth) somehow, but also may bring him some romantic competition between her and Gamora. So many possibilities!

The GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY will return on May 5, 2017.