Taking over the baton from Logan and Patty Jenkins’ standalone Wonder Woman movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has been elected the current cover star of Empire Magazine, and the outlet has today peeled back the curtain on not one, not two, but three all-new images for James Gunn’s spacefaring sequel.
Featuring Star-Lord and the rest of the gang, not to mention new looks at Yondu (Michael Rooker) and Ego, the Living Planet (Kurt Russell) in his humanoid form, the high-res pics are enough to stoke excitement for Guardians 2 without necessarily divulging any spoiler-sensitive material – and we wouldn’t have it any other way. One thing that will no doubt fuel conversation online is the inclusion of Karen Gillan’s Nebula, who can be seen rubbing shoulders with the Guardians and, perhaps most interesting of all, her estranged sister Gamora (Zoe Saldana) up above. Perhaps she’s had a change of heart since the 2014 original?
Either way, Empire quizzed James Gunn about the unusual father-son dynamic between Chris Pratt’s swashbuckling Peter Quill (“Star-Lord, man!”) and Ego, and why he considers Kurt Russell to be the perfect fit for the part. Said he: “I started writing for Kurt as I was finishing the screenplay. I would have been really disappointed if he’d said no.”
Russell also talks up Ego’s central role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and why he decided to climb aboard upon viewing the first movie.
“Fifteen minutes in, I said, ‘I think I see why they’re coming to me…The baggage I bring from some of the movies I’ve done is the right kind of baggage to bring into this one.”
Realizing Ego’s human form is one thing – and make no mistake, casting Kurt Russell in the role is a true coup – but crafting the actual planet proved to be an incredible achievement for Gunn and the film’s VFX team. Indeed, the director even hired artist Hal Tenny to help visualize Ego’s planetary environment and appearance. The result is the “biggest visual effect of all time,” according to Gunn, and we can hardly wait to see the finished product light up the silver screen come May.
“We have over a trillion polygons on Ego’s planet. It’s the biggest visual effect of all time. There’s nothing even close to it. Which is cool.”
After scoring off the charts in Marvel’s internal test screenings, excitement for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is beginning to reach a fever-pitch. It’ll open on May 5th, and will seemingly feature a “better-written” version of Groot compared to the breakout original.