James Gunn, Chris Pratt and More Talk About How They are Family in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL.2

If you haven’t marked your calendars for May 5th already — do it. That’s the day that Marvel Studios releases Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol.2 . We’ve got a teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer that shows us just barely more than the teaser, due mostly to just how close to the chest director James Gunn is trying to keep this film to his chest. He doesn’t want to give away any of the story so the trailers don’t spoil anything.

Lucky for all you Guardians geeks, USA Today has some new publicity pictures to entertain us and keep us a little more satiated until May. And why are we so excited for this sequel? Director James Gunn answers this saying,

“The first movie was successful because we took chances and gave people the unexpected. This movie can only really be what it is, Guardians can only be what they are, if they’re taking a risk. It means giving them a much different movie.”

One of the biggest new characters being introduced in the film to make it a different movie is Ego, the Living Planet, being played by Kurt Russell. USA Today spoke to Russell about his character and he said, “Ego is the most powerful character I’m ever going to play. I mean, he created himself! He’s the real deal.”

We’ve heard for months now that the first film in 2014 was about the Guardians becoming a family, but this film, their sequel, is about them actually being a family. The USA Today article refers to Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, as played by Chris Pratt, as “taken responsibility for his wild bunch of intergalactic ex-convicts,” almost as if he is the pater familias of the group.

The baby of the group is the newly reborn Groot. According to Gunn, “having a child around drives Quill and the muscular warrior Drax crazy.” Gamora, as played by Zoe Saldana, is more of the mother of the group, unafraid to help care for Baby Groot along with Rocket. Zoe Saldana describes her role with the group saying, “She’s surrounded by all these dudes who are so stupid half the time. She has to be the voice of reason.”

And then, there’s Mantis, described by USA Today as “Ego’s confidante.” She and Drax become good friends and, it’s through this relationship, that we get to a lot more of the heart of Drax. As Dave Bautista says of his character, “He looks like this big tough brute but there’s a sense of innocence and heartbreak about him.” Early rumors about the film claim that Drax absolutely steals the show and, if the trailer has anything to say about it, we absolutely believe those rumors.

We’ve embedded the pictures below. We don’t see a whole lot in them that we haven’t already seen in the trailers, but we do get to see Baby Groot sitting on Yondu’s shoulders as they escape the Ravager ship as mutineering space pirates rain down all around them. We also get another great look at Pom Klementieff as Mantis