FILM · 2017 · USA
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2
- Directed by
- James Gunn
- Runtime
- 137 min
- Studio
- Marvel Studios
160 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill's true parentage.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (160)
- #001
Prop master Russell Bobbitt had trouble finding the cassette players used in the first film, and all the Sony Walkman headphones he found were broken. Bobbitt contacted Sony to find out whether they were suitable for filming. They were not, so he eventually created six from scratch.
- #002
Applying Dave Bautista's Drax makeup took 90 minutes (it took three hours on the first film). At the end of the day, however, he had to sit in a sauna to remove the makeup.
- #003
When director James Gunn was writing the screenplay and proposed the idea that the Living Planet Ego was Star-Lord's father, Marvel Studios told him they did not own the rights to the character. Because of his ties to the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer franchises, the rights belonged to 20th Century Fox. Since Gunn had no other character in mind for Star-Lord's father, he had to ask Fox whether he could use the character. Fortunately, Fox agreed to let Marvel have Ego in exchange for gaining more creative freedom over Negasonic Teenage Warhead's superpowers in Fox's Deadpool (2016).
- #004
James Gunn choreographed Groot's dance during the opening title sequence and served as the motion-capture model. Completing the CG visualization of the film's final scene took the visual effects team nearly two years.
- #005
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According to director James Gunn, Groot always freezes when Drax catches him dancing because he knows Drax does not approve of it. In one scene in the film, Drax says he was impressed by his late wife because she stubbornly refused to dance.
- #006
Bradley Cooper recorded Rocket's lines while wearing a motion-capture head rig in the recording studio so that Rocket's voice and facial expressions would sync perfectly. On the first film, Cooper provided only the voice.
- #007
Because Groot communicates only through the phrase "I am Groot" in different takes, James Gunn created a "Groot Version" script for himself and Vin Diesel containing each of Groot's lines in English.
- #008
According to Chris Pratt, making this film helped him confront his father's death. Pratt's father had died in 2014 during the shooting of Jurassic World (2015), but the actor had not had a chance to deal with the death at the time because he was busy with filming and wanted to keep the other actors' spirits up. For a film director James Gunn described as a "story about fathers," Pratt was able to reopen old wounds that had been healing for some time and accepted the fact that some wounds, such as the death of a parent, can never fully heal.
- #009
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Baby Groot is actually Groot's child, not the same character, as confirmed by James Gunn in a Twitter post: "First Groot is dead. Baby Groot is his son."
- #010
One reason Elizabeth Debicki was cast as Ayesha was her height. The actress is about 6' 2½" (189 cm), and during filming she wore platform shoes to increase her height to 6'7" (2.0 m).
- #011
Applying Karen Gillan's Nebula makeup took 2.5 hours, which is actually less than the five hours on the first film. She also only had to shave half her head this time; on the first film all her hair was shaved off.
- #012
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The bald aliens Stan Lee appears with are the Watchers, an alien race that frequently appeared in Marvel comics in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Uatu is the Watcher assigned to observe Earth-616, the reality in which the regular Marvel Comics Universe takes place.
- #013
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Michael Rooker fell asleep while filming Yondu's eulogy scene.
- #014
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One of the final post-credits scenes shows the Sovereign creating a kind of cocoon for a new being called "Adam." This is presumed to refer to the character Adam Warlock.
- #015
This film has five mid-credits and post-credits scenes.
- #016
Prop master Russell Bobbitt created a 1:1 scale model of the 10-inch-tall Baby Groot for filming, used primarily as a lighting reference. The model was sometimes puppeteered opposite the actors during shooting.
- #017
The foul-smelling bug eaten in the film was actually made of chocolate and black honey.
- #018
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He had previously played Peter's (Chris Pratt) grandfather in the first film. Here he appears as the old man at the minivan's steering wheel who narrowly escapes being destroyed by Ego's plants.
- #019
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At Yondu's funeral are his old friends and Ravager comrades Charlie-27, Starhawk, Martinex and Aleta. In the Marvel comics, all four, like Yondu (Michael Rooker), were former members of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
- #020
To make the Ravagers' belts, prop master Russell Bobbitt had his team cut the leather themselves rather than buy existing belts, then glued together parts from various electronic devices such as radios and cell phones to make each belt unique and character-specific.
- #021
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In the film's final section, the actor can be seen dancing in his Grandmaster costume. This is a small nod to Thor: Ragnarok (2017), in which he plays the Grandmaster. That film's trailer had been released only a few weeks before this film's May 2017 premiere.
- #022
During the film's opening, the sensor Peter Quill looks at while Chris Pratt detects the extra-dimensional creature is a modified 1977 Mattel handheld "Electronic Football" video game. Selling over a million units, the product was one of the hottest items of Christmas 1977. The initial beep was the "touchdown" sound, while the other beeps were the sound of the ball moving on the field.
- #023
Similar to Ego, the Living Planet played by Kurt Russell in this film, the idea of a self-sufficient mind spontaneously arising is called "Boltzmann brains." The argument suggests that in an eternally existing universe, one is more likely to be a Boltzmann brain hallucination-reality than a real being.
- #024
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In one of the post-credits scenes, Peter (Chris Pratt) objects when Teenage Groot calls him "boring." This is the first time Peter can clearly understand Groot's words without Rocket's help.
- #025
He appears once again as Howard the Duck. Unlike his previous cameo, however, this one is not in a post-credits scene.
- #026
James Gunn said the hardest song to secure the rights to was ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky," because the band had previously cleared their song "Livin' Thing" for Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), but the scene it was in ended up on the cutting room floor. The band was reportedly hesitant to greenlight the use of their songs in the second film, whether from hurt feelings or from feeling they had wasted their time again. After Gunn explained the importance of the sequence featuring "Mr. Blue Sky," it was quite easy to convince them that removing that scene from the final cut was impossible, so the song would be in the film.
- #027
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James Gunn had previously said that Stan Lee's cameo in this film was one of four cameos Lee shot in a single day. In addition to this film, Gunn directed one for Doctor Strange (2016) and two others he did not specify.
- #028
In an August 2017 Instagram post, James Gunn said Farscape (1999) was one of his favorite sci-fi series of all time. When he met series star Ben Browder at the Saturn Awards a few years before making Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (2017), he asked him whether he would do a cameo. Fortunately he accepted, and he can be seen as a Sovereign admiral alongside Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki).
- #029
Chris Pratt said he found the training regimen for this film much easier than for the first film because he was already in very good shape going in. For Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Pratt was 60 kilos overweight when he started working out. In this film, however, he had maintained the strong physique he gained for the first film.
- #030
In a September 2015 Facebook post, director James Gunn said he wanted to use the Sneepers, an alien race that first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1964, as background characters in this film. Because the name closely resembles the Icelandic word "snípur," meaning "clitoris," Marvel's legal department advised him not to make the suggestion. However, Marvel's legal department later allowed the use of the Sneepers in this film, partly because Gunn's initial post received wide media coverage. The song "Guardians Inferno," played at the end of the film, was attributed to The Sneepers, featuring David Hasselhoff.
- #031
While traveling through multiple space jump points, one of the planets the ship passes appears to be the Kronan homeworld. This is the home of Korg, the rock creature featured in Thor: Ragnarok's (2017) Planet Hulk storyline. Thor had also fought and defeated a "Kronanite" in Thor: The Dark World (2013).
- #032
James Gunn and Chris Pratt revealed on Twitter and Instagram that Kurt Russell's last day on set was very emotional, and that both of them burst into tears because they had enjoyed working with him so much. James Gunn said in particular that working with Russell proved that meeting your heroes is sometimes not a problem.
- #033
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(At about 1 hour 29 minutes in) Ego (Kurt Russell) reveals that he placed a tumor in Meredith's brain, which led to her illness and death. Symbolically, Ego dies in the same way, when Groot places a bomb in his brain and activates it.
- #034
Yondu's (Michael Rooker) larger, spare head fin brings the character's appearance closer to his comic-book counterpart.
- #035
The Sovereign designs were based on 1930s Art Deco and 1950s science fiction.
- #036
Laura Haddock (Meredith Quill, Peter Quill's mother) also appeared in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) as a Captain America fan.
- #037
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David Hasselhoff, who appears briefly, was the first actor to play Nick Fury, in Nick Fury: Agent of Shield (1998). This is the role Samuel L. Jackson plays in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; he first appeared in Iron Man (2008) and was not listed as the character in that title's cameo.
- #038
The teaser poster is a parody of the cover of the Ramones' album "Rocket to Russia."
- #039
This sequel was announced a week before the premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) at San Diego Comic-Con 2014.
- #040
Director James Gunn cast Michelle Yeoh (Aleta Ogord) as a tribute to the 1990s Hong Kong films he is a fan of. Yeoh is a Malaysian actress who rose to fame in the 1990s with Hong Kong action films such as Yes, Madam! (1985) and Holy Weapon (1993). She would later play a completely unrelated character in another Marvel Cinematic Universe installment, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).
- #041
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In Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), a cocoon is seen in the Collector's collection. Many fans believed this cocoon contained Adam Warlock, a member of the Guardians in the comics. James Gunn has since stated that the Collector's cocoon does not contain the character, as Adam appears in this film's post-credits sequence.
- #042
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Early in the film, Nebula (Karen Gillan) says that if they set her free she will not kill Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), and Peter (Chris Pratt) replies: "You would think that an evil supervillain would learn how to properly lie." This points to something Thanos would later confirm in Avengers: Infinity War (2018): that he never taught his daughters how to lie.
- #043
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At the end of the first film, as he flies away, Yondu (Michael Rooker) tells Kraglin (Sean Gunn) that when he met his father he thought he was a jackass. In this film, just before crashing his ship into Ego, Yondu shouts the same thing at him.
- #044
According to James Gunn, he wanted John C. Reilly to reprise the role of Nova Corpsman Dey, but scheduling conflicts prevented it. Similarly, Glenn Close shot scenes as Nova Prime Irani Rael, but they were later cut due to time constraints.
- #045
The 1978 Ford Mustang II King Cobra that Ego, played by Kurt Russell, drives at the start of the film with Meredith Quill, played by Laura Haddock, is painted in the same colors as his son Peter "Star-Lord" Quill's Milano M-Ship: metallic turquoise blue and orange.
- #046
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In one scene, Nebula complains about being left alone with Rocket Raccoon. Ironically, after Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), both characters would be the only surviving members of the Guardians.
- #047
Dairy Queen is not product placement here. It is a place that reminds Gunn of his childhood and is meant to be a marker that evokes youth and memories of the '80s. He stated: "I will never make product placement more important than the story I'm telling."
- #048
Pom Klementieff also provided her voice for the French version.
- #049
James Gunn said that the two best actors on set at performing as if they were acting opposite something that could be found on set and would not actually come to life until CG was added were Michael Rooker and Zoe Saldaña.
- #050
James Gunn explained that with the first film he never knew what comic-book fans would be upset about regarding the size of Yondu's fin, so as a nod to the fans, Yondu gets a bigger one in the sequel.
- #051
Gary Oldman, Viggo Mortensen, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow, Alec Baldwin, Ron Perlman, Stephen Lang, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Robert De Niro, Michael Biehn, Mel Gibson and Liam Neeson were considered for the role of Ego. Matthew McConaughey was also considered, but he passed on the role in favor of The Dark Tower (2017).
- #052
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At roughly 44 minutes in, when Star-Lord, Gamora and Drax first arrive, several skull-like formations can be seen surrounding Ego's palace, a possible early hint of what lies beneath Ego's intentions.
- #053
In an interview, James Gunn said that most of the questions left unanswered in the first film would be answered in this one.
- #054
In the comics, Mantis is half-German and half-Vietnamese. In the film she is played by Pom Klementieff, who has a South Korean mother and a French-Russian father.
- #055
Applying Chris Sullivan's Taserface makeup took between 2.5 and 3.5 hours.
- #056
When the character Ayesha was first introduced in the comics she was called only "Her" and was created as a counterpart to Adam Warlock, whose original name was "Him." She was later named "Kismet" and then renamed Ayesha. In the Fantastic Four comics, when the Four ask her name, she replies, "I have had many, but the most appropriate is Ayesha - she who must be obeyed!" Both the name Ayesha and the title "she who must be obeyed" are references to Sir H. Rider Haggard's 1887 adventure novel "She: A History of Adventure." In the novel the main character is also a priestess named Ayesha, referred to throughout as "she who must be obeyed." Ayesha's elaborate Art Deco costume and production design in this film also reference She (1935), the most famous film adaptation of Haggard's novel, an American film produced by RKO Radio Pictures.
- #057
Marvel Studios issued a statement about the future of the "Guardians" series, saying that Avengers: Infinity War (2018) takes place four years after this film, while the film itself is set in 2014, three months after Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
- #058
James Gunn believes Ego feels emotions such as love, affection and sadness, and more, but never lets them affect his primary preference, which Gunn thinks makes him an interesting character.
- #059
The license plate on Ego's (Kurt Russell) 1978 Ford Mustang II King Cobra is the same as the one on James Gunn's high school car.
- #060
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Some of the death decorations used on Yondu's body are United States military symbols: there are several US Air Force / US Army insignia, including an Army captain's bars; the National Defense Service Medal; a US Air Force Missiles badge; a US Army Good Conduct Ribbon; and the US Air Force Missile Maintenance badge, affectionately known as the "Pocket Rocket." It is worn in the pocket by Air Force Weapons Specialists who work only on guided missiles and strategic intercontinental ballistic missile systems (fitting for someone who uses a mechanical arrow).
- #061
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The opening battle scene resembles the comic's first issue from 2008, in which the newly formed Guardians fight a giant monster from another dimension. In that story the Guardians were defending a cult called the Universal Church of Truth, which had ties to Adam Warlock. In this film the Guardians work for the Sovereign race, which is later revealed to possess Adam Warlock's cocoon. Both the Sovereign and the Church become enemies of the Guardians.
- #062
James Gunn hired fractal artist Hal Tenny to help him design Ego's planet form.
- #063
Cast and crew sometimes wore earphones during scenes so they could hear the songs or scores to be used in a given shot.
- #064
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There was a question about whether Retch should keep crushing Baby Groot, but Gunn felt the matter had to be set aside because Groot kills the man.
- #065
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In the comics, Peter Quill's (Chris Pratt) father is J'Son of Spartax, from the alien Spartoi Empire. In this film his father is Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell), a completely unrelated character.
- #066
Groot was originally going to be full-sized again, but James Gunn felt that would be repetitive and decided to keep him small.
- #067
Mantis compares Ego's idea of making his planet form habitable for people to inviting fleas to live on your body. In Rocket Raccoon #6, published in 2014, Rocket takes on the job of destroying giant fleas that have settled on Ego.
- #068
At 1 hour 57 minutes, Yondu's smile is James Gunn's favorite, and he believes it is one of Michael Rooker's favorite moments.
- #069
Benicio Del Toro, who played the Collector in the first Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), said he wanted to reprise the character even though Marvel did not contact him about the sequel.
- #070
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Baby Groot performs the same dance that Star-Lord did after starting his Walkman in the first film while he is hiding the batteries.
- #071
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Stallone asked how Yondu's line at the Viking funeral should be delivered, and Gunn replied, "have you seen the movie Babe?", to which Stallone said, "Yeah! I'm like this is you saying 'that'll do pig.'".
- #072
The edible yarrow root was designed to resemble enlarged pollen grains and was made from non-dairy white chocolate.
- #073
James Gunn and Sean Gunn's (Kraglin) parents, James Gunn Sr. and Lee Gunn, have small roles in the film.
- #074
On March 23, 2016, Chris Pratt announced a fundraising event to support the Boys & Girls Club of Lake Stevens in his hometown. By donating, you would have the chance to visit Pratt and have lunch with him on the set of this film.
- #075
Nathan Fillion, who has appeared in all of James Gunn's films, had a cameo as Simon Williams/Wonder Man. A scene was shot at the Simon Williams Film Festival featuring various posters for fictional films starring Williams (Fillion). The scene was cut, but Gunn shared the posters online. One of the fake films was a parody of The Toxic Avenger (1984), directed by Gunn's mentor Lloyd Kaufman, and another was a Tony Stark biography whose poster directly imitated Steve Jobs (2015). This is the only Gunn film in which Fillion does not appear in any way. Fans speculated that Fillion would still play Wonder Man at some point in the MCU, but Yahya Abdul-Mateen II ultimately took the role in Wonder Man (2026). Fillion eventually voiced Wonder Man in M.O.D.O.K. (2021) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).
- #076
Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah's song "Lake Shore Drive" was only a regional hit in the early '70s, mostly in the Chicago and St. Louis areas, so James Gunn loved introducing it to a much wider audience in the film and on the soundtrack.
- #077
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James Gunn's favorite moment in the film is when Nebula briefly hugs Gamora.
- #078
It was sent to theaters under the alias "Level Up."
- #079
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As of 2017, Nebula is the only one of the Guardians in this film who is not a Guardian in the comics.
- #080
Olivia Jackson, Nebula's stunt double in the first film, suffered traumatic brain damage and an injury to her left arm that led to amputation, as well as numerous fractures requiring reconstructive surgery on the left side of her face. These injuries occurred while she was performing a motorcycle stunt during the filming of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) and collided with a misplaced camera crane. Coincidentally, Nebula (in this film and Vol. 1) has a prosthetic left arm and a reconstructed left side of her face.
- #081
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Among the items arranged around Yondu's body is a troll doll. It is the same troll doll that Quill placed inside the Orb in place of the Infinity Stone in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
- #082
This film is part of the third installment of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- #083
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Baby Groot's vomiting moment is a nod to James Gunn's B-movie roots and to how he is "not unwilling to resort to the lowest common denominator which is a baby tree vomiting."
- #084
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There were technically much harder scenes, but the two scenes Gunn found hardest to shoot were the attempted dance between Quill and Gamora and the emotional conversation between Rocket and Yondu. Gunn said: "I had to keep shooting, shooting, pushing and pushing. I think one of the roles of a director was to push people further than they thought they could go, and that day I exhausted Chris and Zoe incredibly. I just kept pushing them and making them do it over, and over, and over, and over again until I got the performance I wanted."
- #085
The irony of Gamora not enjoying dancing is that Zoe Saldaña actually has an extensive background in dance, and her first passion was ballet.
- #086
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Gamora sliding down past the monster was a stunt performed by Zoe Saldana herself.
- #087
Glen Campbell's "Southern Nights" was one of James Gunn's favorite songs in his childhood, and he recalls the joy of attending a July 4th party "at Jane Seymour's house of all places" a few years ago, where he met Campbell and heard the man play live music.
- #088
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There are two sequences that were drawn rather than written. The first is Yondu slaughtering the mutinous Ravagers with his whistle arrow, and the other is the big fight between Gamora and Nebula.
- #089
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is one of the few Marvel Cinematic Universe films with a full opening title sequence. Other examples include The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Black Widow (2021).
- #090
There is very little improvisation in the film. Gunn said, "When you start to improvise too much, you start doing things that people on set find very funny, and then you start doing things that aren't as funny as what was originally written, things that took years to write and put into place." He said there are exceptions, but that his films mostly have a tight script.
- #091
When the opening song suddenly ends, Groot slaps Drax on the shoulder. The next line of the song is "Now his hand is on your shoulder."
- #092
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The film takes place three months after the first one, with events occurring in 2014. Stan Lee's cameo mentions that he is a postman, a potential nod to his cameo in the previous year's Captain America: Civil War (2016). However, the events of that film take place in 2016. Alternatively, it could be a reference to his small role in Fantastic Four (2005), in which he played Baxter Building postman Willie Lumpkin.
- #093
James Gunn has "a list of about 500 songs that I think of as Meredith Quill songs she would really love," keeps the list on his computer and refers to it while writing the treatment and the script. When he relayed the story process to the Marvel team, he also included a CD of the relevant tracks.
- #094
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The scene in which Gamora sits in a field just to see an approaching flying craft and chase it was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest. Mad Magazine's "Spy vs Spy" strip was an equally strong inspiration.
- #095
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As the Sovereign chase the Guardians, they use remotely controlled ships. The consoles they operate resemble those in video game arcades of the 1980s and 1990s, especially as eliminated pilots gather around the last remaining starfighter and cheer it on. As a nod to these classic games, the Guardians fly into the Quantum Asteroid Field to escape. "Asteroids" is a very early arcade console game.
- #096
It was initially scheduled for release in July 2017 but was pushed back to May 5.
- #097
Michael Rooker and Stan Lee both appeared in Mallrats (1995); Michael Rooker as Svenning and Stan Lee as himself.
- #098
This film marks the fifth collaboration between James Gunn and Michael Rooker. The other four were Slither (2006), Super (2010), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and The Belko Experiment (2016), all written by Gunn.
- #099
James Gunn noted that many people from the first film's crew, such as cinematographer Ben Davis and production designer Charles Wood, had signed on to work on Doctor Strange (2016). However, because the production schedule was changed late to a November 2015 start, they were unable to work on this film.
- #100
The film's subtitle is a reference to Star-Lord's Awesome Mixtape Vol. 2, the second tape from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
- #101
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James Gunn's family have small roles in the Earth scene as the giant blob passes through the town. "Basically I kill my entire family," he joked.
- #102
James Gunn saw hundreds of actresses audition for the role of Mantis, but there were only two actresses in the running for Ayesha.
- #103
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The scene in which Gamora runs while Nebula fires at her from the craft is a tribute to a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959).
- #104
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James Gunn says he gave a name to the small, three-bird-like creature that appears on the branch after the ship crashes into the forest, but then forgot what it was.
- #105
James Gunn says he is very lucky that every song he requested for these films was approved without any problems.
- #106
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At the 46th minute, Drax's quick glance at Ego's penis is one of James Gunn's favorite moments in the film.
- #107
This marks Michael Rosenbaum's first appearance as a Marvel Comics character. He had previously played numerous live-action and animated DC Comics characters, including Lex Luthor on the television series Smallville (2001) as well as Wally West/The Flash in various animated television shows and films.
- #108
It is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film set in one phase (Phase 2) but part of another phase (Phase 3). The second such film is Captain Marvel (2019), which is set in Phase 1 but is part of Phase 3.
- #109
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The Zune that Kraglin (Sean Gunn) gives to Quill (Chris Pratt) near the end of the film was a type of digital music player made by Microsoft between 2006 and 2011. It was later discontinued due to low sales compared with the iPod and other digital music players, and it never became something "everybody's listening to on Earth."
- #110
Whether the moment in which Nebula bites into the yarrow root and immediately spits it out would continue was a contentious decision in the editing room. Others questioned whether the scene would end on a laugh, and Gunn argued that it should continue.
- #111
According to James Gunn's niece Grace, the purple-skinned young girl statue on one of the stations was modeled after her.
- #112
Kurt Russell's son Wyatt Russell later joined the MCU as John Walker/U.S. Agent in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). Wyatt's first audition was for Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
- #113
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In the 1984 film Starman, Jeff Bridges plays an alien who comes to Earth and travels with a woman in her brown Mustang II, then gives her a baby and leaves. This closely resembles what Ego does, including traveling in a brown Mustang II.
- #114
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The scene in which Drax calls Mantis ugly initially included a short piece of dialogue in which Mantis detailed her love for her friends: "and it was a beautiful speech, but when I cut it from that moment, I realized that the moment where we sell everything she said just by seeing her face and seeing the two of them was stronger."
- #115
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According to James Gunn, making the space underwear was difficult because they did not want it to look too much like Earth underwear, so they removed the fly.
- #116
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Before revealing that the one who somehow survived Yondu's arrow attack is a still-living Gef, they shot a post-credits scene showing Mantis and Gamora talking while someone screams in the distance. They cut it because the callback was too short, but Gunn leaves open the possibility of the character returning.
- #117
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The song in Yondu's funeral scene is Cat Stevens's "Father and Son."
- #118
Michael Rosenbaum (Martinex) had auditioned to play Star-Lord in the first film.
- #119
The song at the end of the title sequence was written by Gunn and is his first pop song.
- #120
It is the second collaboration between Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell, the first being Tango & Cash (1989).
- #121
At the start of the film, Kurt Russell, born in 1951, is seen with Laura Haddock. At the end they run toward the woods, where Russell kisses her. Then a card reading "34 years later" appears. This is exactly how much older Russell is than Haddock.
- #122
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They went through multiple iterations of Ego's biographical "stations of the cross," including a "moving oil painting" and a "shifting sand sculpture."
- #123
Looking Glass's "Brandy" has long been one of James Gunn's favorite songs; it mostly began one night in college after he was with his girlfriend and returned home. The song was playing on the car radio, and he realized it when he truly listened to the lyrics for the first time. "I'm not going to stay in St Louis and I'm not going to stay with this woman, and that reflected in my own life. My love was the sea." It is a humorous and inspiring element, but he acknowledges that this feeling continued throughout his life and caused him not to find the same kind of shared love with others, and that he instead focused on his "love" for filmmaking and entertainment. "I'm trying to work through some of that in my life. I'm trying to be a person who lets love into my life, friendship, but sometimes I can have fun and not everything in my life is work. It's a personal struggle for me, which is why I connect with that song."
- #124
Although this is the first film released in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 4K UHD video format (mainly thanks to director James Gunn's support), it is not the first MCU film with a true 4K digital intermediate; rather, it is an upscale from a 2K DI. Marvel films would not move to true 4K DIs until Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018).
- #125
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Ego tells Star-Lord about his true purpose, he determines that all the life forms he found on his travels through the universe were a disappointment and realizes that his purpose in life is to make the entire universe an extension of himself. This honors his name, since Ego is a Latin word meaning "I" or "self," in the sense of excessive pride and arrogance, feeling superior to everyone and, for the same reason, looking down on them.
- #126
James Gunn recorded the commentary just a few days after the film's opening and said he had spent the last 3 years working on it.
- #127
It is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel to use a number instead of a subtitle since Iron Man 3 (2013). Every other sequel since the third Iron Man used a subtitle, including Thor: The Dark World (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). The only other sequel to use a number instead of a subtitle is Iron Man 2 (2010).
- #128
The end title sequence was inspired by old album covers.
- #129
Contains a major spoiler — show
Early reviews of the film noted that Ayesha had created Adam Warlock much earlier and turned him into a real character in the film, but that the character was too much; even so, James Gunn liked the character and is eager to set him loose in the MCU. Warlock is part of the Infinity War comic book story but was never going to appear in the film.
- #130
The first teaser trailer received 81 million online views in its first 24 hours.
- #131
Contains a major spoiler — show
Michael Rooker and Sylvester Stallone had worked together on Cliffhanger (1993), about a mountain rescue team in a snow-covered mountain range, in which their characters begin with a tense relationship. Coincidentally, it is snowing when the actors first meet each other in that film, and they do not get along.
- #132
Contains a major spoiler — show
It is one of two back-to-back cameo appearances in David Hasselhoff's filmography. In this film, it is mentioned that the Knight Rider (1982) series influenced Star-Lord as a child. The other film is Baywatch (2017), which was also released in May 2017. Coincidentally, the actor appears as a guest star in both films.
- #133
Lola is the company that de-aged Kurt Russell's face. Meredith Quill's age was also reduced slightly.
- #134
Contains a major spoiler — show
There were several variations for how Ego would look in the planet's core. James Gunn stated that "he was the sort of zygote, sperm looking thing for a long time," but in the end they preferred a brain instead.
- #135
It is the second film Kurt Russell and Michael Rooker made together. The first was Tombstone (1993).
- #136
Contains a major spoiler — show
The film is a tribute to Kurt Russell's movies: while Ego trains Peter, he has him hold his hands together to make blue lightning. This closely resembles the opening of Russell's adventure film Big Trouble in Little China (1986). Moreover, the last part of Ego's body to regenerate is the area around his left eye. Russell had previously played Snake Plissken, who wears an eyepatch over his left eye, in Escape from New York (1981) and Escape from L.A. (1996).
- #137
James Gunn said, without naming names, that he regretted some "performance moments in there that I didn't think were as good as they could have been" in the first film, that he took full responsibility for the mistakes, but that he had not taken the time to get the performances he wanted. This changed on the sequel, when he strove to push the cast and take more time to get the film right.
- #138
It surpassed The Expendables 2 (2012) to become Sylvester Stallone's highest-grossing film.
- #139
James Gunn proposed a spin-off centered on Drax and Mantis, but Marvel turned it down because there was no room in its release schedule. Dave Bautista expressed interest in the project, but it eventually became Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).
- #140
The captains of the Ravager fleet — Stakar (Sylvester Stallone), Aleta (Michelle Yeoh), Charlie 27 (Ving Rhames) and Martinex (Michael Rosenbaum), along with Yondu (Michael Rooker) — are the original members of the Guardians of the Galaxy team in the comics.
- #141
Gunn told Karen Gillan when she came on for the first film that, although the character appears only briefly there, his plans for later films were to make Nebula a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. This was an empty promise in terms of a filmmaker's intentions or circumstances, but he knew the character would grow significantly and convinced her of it too.
- #142
Three actors connected to the Stargate series appear in this film: Kurt Russell played Colonel Jack O'Neil in Stargate (1994); Michael Rooker played Colonel Edwards in Enemy Mine (2003); and Ben Browder played Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell in the ninth and tenth seasons of Stargate SG-1 (1997) and in the films Stargate: The Ark of Truth (2008) and Stargate: Continuum (2008).
- #143
Contains a major spoiler — show
The matter jump in the background of the opening, with bright and colorful splashes against the dark act of violence, was inspired by James Gunn's work on the Lollipop Chainsaw video game.
- #144
It is Sylvester Stallone's second comic book film after Judge Dredd (1995). He wanted to play Superman in Superman (1978) and discussed the role with director Richard Donner, but was ultimately rejected for being "too ethnic." Donner always wanted to cast an unknown actor and met with Stallone only at the producers' insistence, though it was also said that Marlon Brando, who played Jor-El, vetoed Stallone's casting because Stallone was seen by many at the time as "the next Brando."
- #145
Bradley Cooper's tenth film to gross over $100 million domestically.
- #146
Contains a major spoiler — show
Early drafts of the script had Quill believing Ego's story and Gamora believing the cynical one, but James Gunn found clarity in the story when he switched the two.
- #147
Contains a major spoiler — show
James Gunn recalled behind-the-scenes moments with Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista at a large event celebrating the first film's premiere, saying the three promised each other to prioritize honesty and their relationships. They knew it would be big and it launched all three to a higher stratosphere than they had enjoyed before, so they wanted to keep themselves grounded and not let ego destroy them, instead destroying their own egos as if they knew better.
- #148
The look of the inner core of Ego's planet is based on a Mandelbrot set determined by Hal Tenny.
- #149
Rhett McLaughlin auditioned for the role of Taserface.
- #150
Contains a major spoiler — show
Kurt Russell plays Ego in this film, a villain who wants to replace all life in the universe with his own self. Russell also played Captain MacReady in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), a man fighting to survive against an alien entity ("the Thing") that aims to assimilate all sentient beings into itself: a subtle distinction but a fruitful similarity between these alien villains that haunt two Russell films.
- #151
Although it had long been called Marvel Studios, this is the first film to read Marvel Studios in its title design instead of just 'Marvel' as used in previous films.
- #152
It features two Oscar winners, Michelle Yeoh and Zoe Saldaña, and two Oscar nominees, Bradley Cooper and Sylvester Stallone.
- #153
The woman drinking with Howard the Duck is played by Molly Quinn. Her boyfriend, Elan Gale, was introduced to her by James Gunn and appears as one of Stakar Ogord's men.
- #154
The film's title is based on the same comic book title published by Marvel Comics from May 14, 2008 to April 21, 2010.
- #155
Groot brings Vorker's disembodied eye to Rocket.
- #156
Gunn noted that the Marvel Studios logo appears after the opening flashback of the first film, saying "but the logo's gotten much longer since then so it was a little strange when we tried that this time."
- #157
Contains a major spoiler — show
At 1 hour 51 minutes, Gregg Henry is shown in a minivan. They shot a scene showing him rescuing a woman and trying to escape in the minivan, but the scene was cut to speed things up.
- #158
Hannah Harlow's first film.
- #159
Contains a major spoiler — show
Many older viewers considered the use of the song My Sweet Lord to be in poor taste, since the song was first released in unstable times and gave audiences a genuine touch of spirituality in an otherwise selfish world. Associating the song with Ego was perceived by the filmmakers as a sign of insensitivity and a lack of cultural awareness. However, Ego's belief that the song is about himself represents his maniacal narcissism.
- #160
Contains a major spoiler — show
Michael Rooker (Yondu) had previously worked with Kurt Russell on Tombstone (1993). It was a small role as Sherman McMasters, who had a mix of good and bad pasts in the Old West. He was briefly a good man during the Tombstone days, a rare occurrence since Rooker's name was more associated with bad guys. In this film, his villainous character turns into a hero.
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