**POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING
Guardians of the Galaxy remains one of Marvel’s biggest surprise hits. It featured a fun, raunchy and enduring group of anti-heroes, facing a universe conquering villain with the power of a god, and it captivated the world. So it came as no surprise when Marvel announced a sequel headed to theaters on May 5, 2017.
How do you make one of Marvel’s biggest hits even bigger? Well, first you introduce a villain unlike any other and you, of course, add new members to the team.
I am sure we can all agree that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 would feature some new additions to the team, it was just a question of who. Thanks to Geek.com we now how a good idea of who will be joining the crew of the Milano.
The site reports Yondu, Mantis and the villainous Nebula we be joining the team in the Guardians sequel.
Yondu and Nebula will be returning characters, as both played a pivotal role in the first film. Yondu being a father figure/mentor of sorts to Pete Quill, while Nebula is the sister of Gamora and former assassin for Ronin and her father, Thanos. Mantis will be a new character to the film universe but has been a long time member of the Guardians in the comics. Mantis has telepathic abilities and can often tell the future, she is also an expert in martial arts and has bested some of Marvel’s most skilled heroes.
If this rumor is true, it’s honestly not who I expected. Both Yondu and Nebula were great in the first film, but I felt they lacked the charm and heroism to truly cross the line from villain to hero. This eventual turn to hero seems much more plausible for Yondu but Nebula will be a harder character to redeem. In the comics she does eventually redeem herself and make the turn to hero, but it takes the end of the universe to do it. It will be interesting to see how director James Gunn incorporates Yondu and Nebula onto the team considering how we left them in the first film. Mantis, on the other hand, is a perfect addition to Guardians of the Galaxy, as she is a classic character for the comics and something new we haven’t seen in the Marvel universe.
With a bigger universe to explore and Gunn at the helm, I am sure these won’t be the only new characters in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, expected fan favorite, Adam Warlock, will eventually join this list. Only time will time, but we are definitely excited to see the MCU grow.
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