In case the last several weeks have been something of a downer – or perhaps you’re just experiencing seasonal affected disorder, cough cough – here’s an easy cure: a extremely entertaining new trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 dropped online this afternoon, and you can watch it here now.
Some of what you’ll see here is straight out of the mindblowing presentation last summer at Comic-Con – which, we told you it was awesome. But there’s plenty of new stuff too, like the first real look at Pom Klementieff’s Mantis, demonstrating her empathic powers by outing the “sexual love” Star-Lord-AKA-Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) has for Gamora (Zoe Saldana). I’m a particularly big fan of Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) laughing gleefully at Star-Lord’s embarrassment before begging Mantis to do the same for him. But the real stand out of course is, as alway, adorable Baby Groot (Vin Diesel), seen here refusing to understand Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) instructions that he’s not supposed to press the button detonating a nuclear bomb.
I’m sold on Guardians 2 sight unseen but I’m liking this trailer a lot more than the first one a few months back. That earlier teaser emphasized continuity with the original film by featuring “Hooked On A Feeling”. Understandable sure but I’m glad to hear something new, in this case Sweet’s “Fox on the Run”, setting the tone for the sequel.
Sadly for those of you who weren’t in San Diego last summer, you’ll have to wait a while longer for a glimpse of Kurt Russell as Ego the living planet, or Sylvester Stallone as an as-yet unspecified member of Nova Corps. (By the way, my guess is Sly is playing Richard Ryder, otherwise known as Nova, a major supporting player in Marvel’s cosmic-set stories who essentially functions as the publisher’s equivalent of DC’s Green Lantern.)
Written and directed by James Gunn, the film stars Pratt, Saldana, Bautista, Diesel and Cooper, along with Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, Glenn Close, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, and of course Russell. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters May 5.
