As promised at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, the galactic superhero team would return, and there has been a release date set for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The film has a lot of potential, particularly with the plotline of Star-Lord's father, as well as a tie-in with the next two Avengers films focusing on the Infinity War.
According to The Comeback, there is some art from the film designed by Andy Park, that shows off the team. You should recognize the initial five of the team with Peter Quill (aka Star-Lord, played by Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Rocket the Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), Drax (Dave Bautista), and a young Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel).
Those that enjoyed the first film will recognize the returning character from the first film. One of them is Nebula (Karen Gillan), who had a villainous role in the first film, but looks like she will be joining. The other is Yondu (Michael Rooker), who is essentially Star-Lord's adopted father.
The one you might not recognize from the last film is Mantis (Pom Klementieff). In the comics, Mantis was part of the 2008 team as well as a member of the Avengers at one point in time. She has the power to control plants, and can also do some great martial arts.
There is some signs of other cast members on the film's imdb page. For example, Nathan Fillion is credited as Simon Williams. Fillion, known for playing Captain Mal Reynolds on the sadly short-lived Firefly and its movie Serenity (not to mention Castle on Castle), is very familiar with deep space action. In fact, he is credited in the first film as "Monstrous Inmate", but the character of Simon Williams is well-known to most comic book fans. In the comics, Simon Williams is Wonder Man (seriously), and he is a very invulnerable and super-strong character who was a member of the Avengers.
What is strange is there are cast members that appear on the imdb page that are big names, but no characters associated with them. This includes the one and only Sylvester Stallone, as well as Kurt Russell. It is probable that one of these could be playing Star-Lord's father, but it could be that these films might not even tackle that subject.
The one subject that these Marvel Cinematic Universe films are heading toward is The Infinity War. This is going to be the subject of the next two-part Avengers film, and the seeds of it have been planted in both Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as all of the other Marvel solo character films. These particular seeds have to do with The Infinity stones, and a plot by the villain Thanos to obtain them all for ultimate power.
It seems obvious that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to get bigger than even Captain America Civil War as it is believed that The Guardians of the Galaxy will team-up with The Avengers, resulting in an adaptation of a storyline so big and famous that it will take two films to properly tell it, especially with all the spotlight on many Marvel stars.
We shall see once Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters on May 5, 2017. Then, one year later, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 will appear on May 4, 2018, followed by Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 on May 3, 2019.
