10 Hidden Details You May Have Missed In The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ Trailer

9. Baby Groot is in Charge of the Music

In the same scene mentioned above, we get to see the various members of the team prepare to do battle with the Abelisk. Peter Quill and Gamora debate whether the gun she’s holding is a rifle, Rocket prepares his toys and Drax dives headfirst at the thing as soon as it shows up. That just leaves Baby Groot who … plugs Quill’s Walkman into some speakers. While it’s adorable to see that Baby Groot has been put in charge of looking after the tunes while the Guardians do battle, it also speaks volumes (pun unintended) about his role in the team now that he’s no longer a giant killer tree. As we see in another scene where he’s too busy eating candy to strap on his seat belt, Groot is very much like a child now and it will be interesting to see how having to babysit him impacts his relationship with the rest of the group.

8. Ayesha and Nebula

This trailer gives us a better look at the new golden Nazi-like villain Ayesha, who is actually the one who hires the Guardians to take out the Abelisk, which has been eating her planet’s power sources. What you may not have noticed is that she has Nebula in custody, who appears to be the payment for getting rid of the Abelisk. The Guardians most likely want to take her back to the Nova Corps to answer for her crimes on Xandar in the previous film but considering what happens in later scenes in the trailer, it’s evident that things don’t go according to plan.

7. New Ravager Leader

Many have wondered how Yondu ends up becoming allied with the Guardians in Vol. 2 and we get a bit of answer to that question in this new trailer in the form of new Ravager leader Taserface (great name), who leads a mutiny of sorts against Yondu. What’s interesting is that we see Yondu here with his band of Ravagers, which indicates that he’s still on their side as the movie begins. It’s unclear what leads to Yondu being ousted but it may have something to do with Rocket being taken into their custody. We can only guess that Yondu steps in to save the bipedal rodent’s life, which probably isn’t looked on too fondly by his crew.

6. Gamora Firing at the Milano? (and Possible Superman Easter Egg)

We briefly see Gamora recklessly firing some kind of giant, shoulder-mounted gun at something, but you may not have noticed that that something is Star-Lord’s ship, the Milano. We can only guess that it has something to do with Nebula stealing the ship, as we clearly see her piloting the Milano later in the trailer. What’s interesting is that it looks like James Gunn may be poking fun at an old Superman comic with Gamora’s oversized gun. In the 1995 comic At Earth’s End, a 150-year-old Kal-El wields something similar (okay, the gun is actually a lot bigger than Gamora’s) against a bunch of robotic-Hitler clones. Yes, the 90s were a dark, strange time indeed for comics.

5. Drax’s Energy Field

Drax’s best moment in the trailer might just be hi scream of “DIE SPACESHIP!” as he, you guessed it, fires upon a spaceship, but what’s neat about this brief shot is that we can clearly see Drax wearing some sort of energy field around his entire body. Evidently, this is a new installation on the Milano, likely put in to avoid another situation like the one where Quill and Gamora nearly died in the vacuum of space, but as we see with Drax, it also opens up some new combat opportunities, like Drax being able to jump out and take out spaceships single-handedly.

4. Yondu Prison Break?

The next time we see Rocket and Yondu together, they’re making their way side-by-side through the Ravager’s prison, but it’s not quite clear what’s going on here. Considering how turbulent things must be with the Ravagers at this point in the film, it’s possible that we’re seeing either Yondu breaking Rocket out of prison or vice versa. The more likely scenario is that Yondu is the one busting Rocket and Baby Groot out so that they can take him to see Quill and the other Guardians, but it wouldn’t be surprising either if it turned out that Yondu was the one being held prisoner, and Rocket and Groot are just returning the favor for Yondu sparing their lives. Either way, it looks like both parties are, at the very least, uneasy allies by this point.

3. Mantis

New addition Mantis is definitely given short shrift in this trailer, but at least she gets a title card. If you look closely at the trailer’s final scene, you can see that Mantis is introduced alongside Kurt Russell’s Ego; in fact, actress Pom Klementieff already addressed this connection in a prior interview, revealing that she’s spent her life with him. Mantis is also involved with an arc from the comics called the Celestial Madonna, but rather than play her herself, it’s possible that Peter Quill is actually the Celestial Messiah, which could come to play an important role in Avengers: Infinity War. At any rate, I’m interested to see more of her character and what her true role in the film is.

2. Is Nebula Referencing A Rift In The Team?

It’s pretty clear that Nebula’s arc in Vol. 2 will involve her striking up an uneasy alliance with the Guardians, but her line about the team always yelling at each other could reveal that things aren’t necessarily all fun and games for the Guardians and their relationship in this movie. James Gunn has already revealed that the sequel will delve into the team’s dynamics and how some members don’t take to working together as well as others, so it’s possible we’ll see a big rift form at some point. Of course, infighting is nothing new in the MCU (hey, didn’t the last Captain America movie have something to do with all the Avengers fighting each other?), so it will be interesting to see how Vol. 2 tackles this well-worn trope.

1. Is Ego Really Star-Lord’s Father?

The trailer concludes with the long-awaited reveal of Kurt Russell as the humanoid version of Ego the Living Planet, who reveals that he’s Peter Qull, a.k.a. Star-Lord’s father. But what if he really isn’t? It seems odd to have such a big moment revealed in a trailer, so perhaps Marvel is doing it to deflect attention away from the film’s actual big reveal: that Ego is the big villain, not Ayesha. The only possible evidence for this is that the exploding planet seen late in the trailer looks like it could be Ego’s planetary form (yes, James Gunn has denied that this form would be in the movie but directors lie all the time). Whatever the case, all will be revealed in time and it’s sure to be quite entertaining.

Photo: Marvel Studios

Nick Steinberg (@Nick_Steinberg)