Intergalactic Comics: Meeting the New Cast of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Monday, May 8, 2017

Meeting the New Cast of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 did a sensational job reuniting old cast members and introducing new (and very old) friends and foes. Chances are you’ve seen the film, but if you haven’t, turn away and read our spoiler-free review here.

Spoilers Ahead

Arguably the most absurd character in the film, Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby) shines as the ridiculously petty Ayesha, but she wasn’t always the confident gold star we see in the film. Debicki described the process of meeting some of her foes.

“My first day on set was when we were shooting in the throne room, and I was obviously terrified of playing this extremely powerful creature…I remember so sitting up on the throne for a long time and all the Guardians were in front of me. It was so intimidating, and it was about two hours before we spoke to each other, I think. And they all came up in this line to sort of come and say hello. And I was like, please come and say hello to me! Someone say hello. And then that was fine after that.” – Elizabeth Debicki (Ayesha)

The most surprising Marvel newcomer, though, is the legendary Sylvester Stallone. His role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is unlike anything he’s experienced before.

“Early on in my career I just always became fascinated with mythology and Joseph Campbell and you know, Man of a Thousand Faces and so on and so forth. So when I started doing Rambo, whatever, there was an evolution that takes place and each generation has to define itself and find its own heroes and find its own mythology and this is the new, this is this generation, and maybe even the next generation’s mythology and when Kevin invited me onboard I said, “This is interesting because I haven’t gone here,” so I mean, I’m kind of earthbound, I’m terrestrial.” – Sylvester Stallone (Starhawk)

The newest edition to the Guardians, and my personal favorite, is Mantis, played by Pom Klementieff. The socially inept creature is essentially Ego’s slave and the butt of many unintentional sleights from Drax.

Last but not least, newly minted Hollywood Walk of Fame star Kurt Russell plays Star-Lord’s (Chris Pratt) enigmatic father/planet, Ego. Russell has a dynamite dynamic with the cast, with a genuine love and respect for the source material.

“When I read the script, I wanted to make sure I was kind of understanding it correctly and I hadn’t seen the first movie. I’m not much of a moviegoer… I knew that everybody loved it, though…one day I was doing Hateful Eight stuff… and all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom, my phone and the people around me are saying, are you gonna do, oh that’s great, are you gonna be Star Lord’s dad? Are you gonna be Peter Quill’s father and are you gonna do Guardians of the Galaxy and I, I just was like, guys, I don’t really know what they’re talking about. When I saw the movie, I immediately started getting it. I also immediately started wanting to do it.” – Kurt Russell (Ego)