FILM · 2017 · USA
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2
- Directed by
- James Gunn
- Runtime
- 137 min
- Studio
- Marvel Studios
267 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill's true parentage.
267 Interesting Facts About Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2
Interesting Facts (68)
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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 from the comic books.
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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).
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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
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).
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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.
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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).
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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.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
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.
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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.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
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."
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Contains a major spoiler — show
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."
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Contains a major spoiler — show
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."
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Contains a major spoiler — show
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.
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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."
- #061
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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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Production Story (109)
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James Gunn has "a list of about 500 songs that I think of as Meredith Quill songs she would really love" he keeps the list on his computer and references it while writing the treatment and script. When he passes the story treatment on to the Marvel folks he includes a CD of the relevant tracks.
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While this is the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be released on the 4K UHD video format (mainly thanks to a push from director James Gunn), this would not be the first MCU film to have a true 4K digital intermediate, but rather an upscale from a 2K DI. Marvel films would not switch to true 4K DIs until Black Panther (2018), with Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) following suit.
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James Gunn said in an Instagram post in August 2017 that Farscape (1999) was one of his all-time favorite sci-fi shows. When he ran into the show's star, Ben Browder, a couple of years before shooting Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (2017) at the Saturn Awards, he asked him if he'd make a cameo. He thankfully agreed and can be seen as the Sovereign admiral with Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki).
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Nathan Fillion, who has had a role in all of James Gunn's films, had a "cameo" as Simon Williams/Wonder Man. A scene was filmed taking place at a Simon Williams Film Festival featuring several 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 biopic of Tony Stark, with the poster directly spoofing Steve Jobs (2015). This is Gunn's only film that does not feature Fillion in any capacity. Fans speculated that Fillion would still play Wonder Man at some point in the MCU, but Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was ultimately cast in the role in Wonder Man (2026). Fillion did end up voicing Wonder Man in M.O.D.O.K. (2021), and was cast as different character, Master Karja, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).
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In September 2015, director James Gunn said in a Facebook post that he wanted to use the Sneepers, an alien race that first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1964, as background characters in this film. He was advised against it by Marvel's legal department, because the name was too similar to "snípur", the Icelandic word for "clitoris". Nevertheless, the Marvel legal department later cleared the use of Sneepers in this film, in part because of the extensive media coverage Gunn's initial post received. The song "Guardians Inferno", played at the end of the movie, is credited to The Sneepers featuring David Hasselhoff.
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Gunn told Karen Gillan once she came in for the first film that while the character only appears briefly there his plans for later films was to make Nebula into a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. That's something an empty promise from a filmmaker either by intent or circumstance, but he knew the character would grow substantially and convinced her of the same.
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Without naming names, James Gunn says of the first film that he regrets some "performance moments in there that I didn't think were as good as they could have been" he takes full blame for the faults though saying he didn't take the time to get the performances he wanted. That changed on this sequel as he made an effort to push his cast and take more time to get the movie right.
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James Gunn said the hardest song to get the rights for 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. Whether because of hurt feelings, or just a feeling that they might be wasting their time again, the band was reportedly hesitant to greenlight the use of their song in the second movie. Once Gunn explained the importance of the sequence "Mr Blue Sky" was featured in, he had a fairly easy time of convincing them it was impossible to drop that scene from the final cut, so the song would appear in the film.
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When director James Gunn was writing the script for the movie and proposed the idea of Ego the Living Planet being Star-Lord's father, Marvel Studios told him that they did not have the rights to the character. The rights belonged to 20th Century Fox because of his ties to the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer franchises. Since Gunn had no other characters in mind for Star-Lord's father, he had to ask Fox if he could use the character. Fortunately, Fox agreed to let Marvel have Ego, in return for Fox gaining more creative freedom over Negasonic Teenage Warhead's set of superpowers in Deadpool (2016).
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"Brandy" by Looking Glass has been a favorite song of James Gunn for a long time, starting mostly one night in college after being with his girlfriend and driving home. The song came on the car radio and he identified it having really listened to the lyrics for the first time. "It spoke to my own life that I was not going to stay in St Louis and I was not going to stay with this woman. My love was the sea." A humorous inspirational element to it, but he acknowledges that the feeling has remained through his life leaving him unable to find the same kind of shared love as others as he instead focuses on his "love" for filmmaking and entertainment. "I'm trying to combat some of that in my life. I'm trying to be a person who allows love into my life, that allows friendship, but I'm able to have fun sometimes and that not everything about my life is work. It's a personal struggle for me so I relate to that song."
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Contains a major spoiler — show
James Gunn recalled a backstage moment with Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista at a big event celebrating the release of the first film and says the trio promised each other that they'd keep integrity and relationships a priority. They knew it would be big and it launched all three into a higher stratosphere than they'd previously enjoyed, so they wanted to insure they'd remain down to earth and not let ego destroy us and instead destroy our own ego it's almost as if they knew.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
The scene where Drax calls Mantis ugly originally included a short piece of dialogue where she details the love she feels from him for his friends, "and it was a beautiful speech but when I cut it out of the moment I found that the moment was more potent that we sell everything she was saying just by seeing her face and seeing the two of them".
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Contains a major spoiler — show
They shot a post credit sequence showing Mantis and Gamora talking while someone screams in the distance before revealing that it's a still living Gef who somehow survived Yondu's arrow assault. They cut it because the callback was too small of a moment but Gunn is leaving open the possibility that the character may return.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
An early treatment for the film saw Ayesha create Adam Warlock much earlier making him an actual character in the film, but it was one character too many, James Gunn loved the character though and can't wait to unleash him upon the MCU. Warlock is part of the Infinity War comic storyline but was never going to be in the film.
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When director James Gunn was writing the film's script 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 series, 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 this character. Fortunately, Fox agreed to let Marvel have Ego in exchange for Fox gaining more creative freedom over Negasonic Teenage Warhead's superpowers in Deadpool (2016).
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According to Chris Pratt, making this film helped him confront his father's death. Although Pratt's father had passed away in 2014 during the filming of Jurassic World (2015), the actor had not had a chance to deal with the death at the time because he was busy with the shoot and wanted to keep the other actors' spirits up. For a film that 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.
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Chris Pratt said Michael Rooker thought the shirtless scene in the film was better. He said Rooker's shirtless scene was about showing vulnerability and developing Yondu's character. You're learning things about him now, but his own scene was just to show his body and didn't add much to Peter Quill.
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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 out of hurt feelings or a sense that they had wasted their time again. After Gunn explained the importance of the sequence featuring "Mr Blue Sky," it was fairly easy to convince them that removing that scene from the final cut was impossible, so the song would be in the film.
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In an August 2017 Instagram post, James Gunn said Farscape (1999) was one of his favorite science fiction series of all time. Years before shooting Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (2017) at the Saturn Awards, when he ran into series star Ben Browder, 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).
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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 "snípur," which means "clitoris" in Icelandic, Marvel's legal department advised him not to make the suggestion. Nevertheless, 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.
- #123
While traveling through multiple space jump points, one of the planets the ship passes looks like 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).
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The original appearance of the living planet Ego in Marvel Comics was an actual planet with a giant face; in this film he creates a humanoid avatar to interact with people. In the final battle, the planet begins to bring its face to the fore in several scenes, a nod to its comic-book look.
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When Yondu, Kraglin and Rocket escape from the exploding Ravager ship, Rocket passes several targets before locating Ego in the system. These include: Drez-Lar (part of the Kree empire), Hala (the Kree homeworld), Terma (part of the Kree empire and a planet with ties to Adam Warlock in the comics) and Terra (Earth).
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Near the beginning of 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.
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When the character Ayesha was first introduced in the comics, she was referred to only as "Her" and was created as a counterpart to the character Adam Warlock, whose original name was "Him." She was later named "Kismet" and subsequently 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 epithet "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-style 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.
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Some of the death decorations used on Yondu's body are United States military symbols: there are a number of US Air Force / US 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 (which suits someone who uses a mechanical arrow).
- #139
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, and it is later revealed that this race possesses Adam Warlock's cocoon. Both the Sovereign and the Church become enemies of the Guardians.
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Nathan Fillion, who appears 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 biopic 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).
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Olivia Jackson, Nebula's stunt double in the first film, suffered traumatic brain injury and an injury to her left arm that led to amputation, as well as numerous fractures on the left side of her face requiring reconstructive surgery. These injuries occurred when she collided with a misplaced camera crane while performing a motorcycle stunt during the filming of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016). Coincidentally, Nebula (in this film and in Vol. 1) has a prosthetic left arm and a reconstructed left side of her face.
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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 wore Chris and Zoe out incredibly. I kept pushing them and making them do it over, and over, and over, and over again until I got the performance I wanted."
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There is very little improvisation in the film. Gunn said, "When you start improvising 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.
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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 relays the story process to the Marvel team, he also includes a CD of the relevant tracks.
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As the Sovereign chase the Guardians, they use remotely controlled ships. The consoles they operate resemble those in 1980s and 1990s video game arcades, especially as the eliminated pilots gather around the last remaining starfighter and cheer him 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.
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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 to the iPod and other digital music players, and it never became anything like "everybody's listening to on Earth".
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The scene where Drax calls Mantis ugly originally included a short piece of dialogue in which Mantis detailed the love she felt for her friends, "and it was a very beautiful speech but when I cut 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".
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Before explaining 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 and someone screaming in the distance. They cut it because the callback was too short, but Gunn leaves open the possibility of the character returning.
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Looking Glass's "Brandy" had long been James Gunn's favorite song; it mostly began one night in college when he went home after being with his girlfriend. The song came on the car radio and he realized it when he truly listened to the lyrics for the first time. "I won't be staying in St Louis and I won't be staying with this woman, which also reflected on my own life. My love was the sea." A witty and inspiring element, but he admits that this feeling continued throughout his life and caused him to fail to find the same kind of shared love with others, and instead focused on his "love" for filmmaking and entertainment. "I'm trying to struggle with 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. This is a personal struggle for me, so I connect with that song."
- #166
When Ego talks to Star-Lord about his true purpose, he determines that all the life forms he found on this journey through the universe were disappointing, and realizes that his purpose in life is to make the entire universe an extension of himself. 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 despising them, this honors his name.
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Michael Rooker and Sylvester Stallone worked together on Cliffhanger (1993), about a mountain rescue team in a snow-covered mountain, and their characters start off with a tense relationship. Coincidentally, in this film it is snowing when the actors first meet each other and they are on bad terms.
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The film is a tribute to Kurt Russell films: while Ego trains Peter, he has him hold his hands together to make blue lightning. This is very similar to the beginning of Russell's adventure film Big Trouble in Little China (1986). Moreover, the last part of Ego's body to form as his body regenerates 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).
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James Gunn says he regretted some "performance moments in there that I didn't think were as good as they could have been" in the first film, without naming names, that he takes full responsibility for the mistakes but did not take the time to get the performances he wanted. This changed on this sequel, when he strove to push the cast and take more time to get the film right.
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Gunn told Karen Gillan that when she came on for the first film, even though the character only appeared briefly there, his plans for the sequels were to make Nebula a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. This was not an empty promise in terms of a filmmaker's intent or circumstances, but he knew the character would grow significantly and convinced her of it too.
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James Gunn recalled behind-the-scenes moments with Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista at a big event celebrating the first film's premiere, and said the trio promised each other they would prioritize honesty and relationships. They knew it was going to be big and it launched all three of them to a higher stratosphere than they had enjoyed before, so they wanted to make sure they stayed grounded and didn't let ego destroy them, and instead destroy their own egos as if they knew.
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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 caught in a struggle for survival 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.
Behind the Scenes (30)
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There's very little improvisation in the film. Gunn stated "when you start to get too improvy you start to do things that people find very funny on set and then are not as funny as what was originally written, which took years to write and put into place." He said there were exceptions, but for the most part his films were tightly scripted.
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To make the Ravagers' belts, prop master Russell Bobbitt had his team cut the leather themselves, rather than buying existing belts, and then parts from different electronic devices, such as radios and cell phones, were glued together to make each belt unique and specific to the character.
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Chris Pratt said that he thought Michael Rooker had the better shirtless scene in the film. He said Rooker's shirtless scene is about showing vulnerability and developing Yondu's character. You learn something about him in the moment, but his own scene was just to show off his body and didn't really add anything to Peter Quill.
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The sensor that Peter Quill Chris Pratt looks at when detecting the extra-dimensional creature during the opening of the movie is a modified 1977 Mattel handheld "Electronic Football" video game. Selling over one million units, this was one of the hottest items of Christmas 1977. The beep at the beginning is the "touchdown" sound, whilst the other beeps are the sound of the ball moving down the field.
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James Gunn and Chris Pratt revealed on Twitter and Instagram that Kurt Russell's last day on set was a very emotional one, with both of them breaking down in tears because they enjoyed working with him so much. James Gunn specifically said working with Russell proved that sometimes it's okay to meet your heroes.
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James Gunn noted that many of the crew from the first film, such as cinematographer Ben Davis and production designer Charles Wood, signed on to work on Doctor Strange (2016). However, due to a late change in production schedule to a November 2015 start, they were unable to work on this film.
- #196
Contains a major spoiler — show
There were far more technically difficult scenes, but the two hardest scenes for Gunn to shoot were the dance attempt between Quill and Gamora and the emotional talk between Rocket and Yondu. Gunn stated "I had to keep shooting and shooting and pushing and pushing. I think one of the roles of the director is really to push the people further than they think they can go, and on this day I incredibly exhausted Chris and Zoe. I kept pushing them and making them do it again and again and again and again until I got the performance I wanted."
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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.
- #205
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.
- #206
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.
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Characters & Cast (6)
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In the Guardians of the Galaxy comics, Taserface is a warrior from the cybernetically enhanced race known as The Stark. The Stark are an alien race that found Iron Man technology that had accidentally crashed on their planet, and as a result they worship Tony Stark (Iron Man) as their god.
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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.
- #213
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.
Easter Eggs & References (39)
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When the character of Ayesha was first introduced in the comics, she was just named "Her" and was created as a counterpart to the character Adam Warlock, who was originally named "Him". She then took on the name "Kismet" and was renamed later as Ayesha. In the Fantastic Four comics, when the Four ask her for 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 sobriquet "she who must be obeyed" are references to the 1887 adventure novel "She: A History of Adventure" by Sir H. Rider Haggard. In the novel, the main character is also a priestess named Ayesha and is referred to throughout as "she who must be obeyed". The elaborate Art Deco-style costume and production design for this film's Ayesha is also a nod to the most famous movie adaptation of Haggard's novel, She (1935), an American film produced by RKO Radio Pictures.
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While traveling via multiple space hops, one of the planets the ship travels past appears to be the Kronan homeworld. This is home to Korg the rock creature, who appears in the Planet Hulk storyline of Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Thor also already fought and defeated a "Kronanite" in Thor: The Dark World (2013).
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Director James Gunn cast Michelle Yeoh (Aleta Ogord) as a tribute to 1990s Hong Kong films, of which he is a fan. Yeoh is a Malaysian actress who rose to fame in 1990s Hong Kong action films, such as Yes, Madam! (1985) and Holy Weapon (1993). She would later go on to play a totally unrelated character in another Marvel Cinematic Universe installment Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).
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Contains a major spoiler — show
At the end of the first film as he's flying away, Yondu (Michael Rooker) tells Kraglin (Sean Gunn) that he thought, upon meeting his dad, that he was a jackass. In this movie, that's exactly what Yondu yells at Ego just before smashing into him with his ship.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 24 mins) Stan Lee's cameo has him discussing previous adventures that include his cameos in other Marvel films. According to Kevin Feige, this was a nod to the popular theory that Lee is a cosmic entity in Marvel: "Stan Lee clearly exists, you know, above and apart from the reality of all the films. So the notion that he could be sitting there on a cosmic pit stop during the jump gate sequence in 'Guardians' was something very fun, it says, 'Wait a minute, he's this same character who's popped up in all these films?'"
- #229
Contains a major spoiler — show
Towards the beginning of the movie, Nebula (Karen Gillan) says that if they set her free she won't kill Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), to which Peter (Chris Pratt) replies: "You would think that an evil supervillain would learn how to properly lie." This hints at what Thanos would later confirm in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), which is that he never taught his daughters how to lie.
- #230
Contains a major spoiler — show
Ego the Living Planet's original appearance in the Marvel Comics was an actual planet with a giant face; in this film he creates a humanoid avatar to interact with people. In the final battle, the planet starts to feature his face in a few scenes, homaging his comic look.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
The bald aliens with Stan Lee are The Watchers, a race of aliens who appeared frequently throughout 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.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
When Yondu, Kraglin, and Rocket escape from the exploding Ravager ship, Rocket scrolls past several destinations before he finds the location of Ego in the system. They include: Drez-Lar (part of the Kree empire), Hala (the Kree homeworld), Terma (part of the Kree empire and a planet with ties to Adam Warlock in the comics), and Terra (Earth).
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Contains a major spoiler — show
In Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) a cocoon is seen in the Collector's collection. Many fans have speculated this cocoon contained Adam Warlock, who is a member of The Guardians in the comics. James Gunn has since stated the Collector's cocoon does not contain the character, as seen in this film when Adam is revealed in the post-credits sequence.
- #237
Contains a major spoiler — show
Some of the death decorations used on Yondu's body are United States military symbols, as follows: there is a set of U.S. Air Force/U.S. Army captain's bars; the National Defense Service Medal; a U.S. Air Force Missileers pin; a U.S. Army Ribbon for Good Conduct; and a U.S. Air Force Missile Maintenance badge, affectionately known as a "Pocket Rocket". It is worn exclusively on the pocket of Air Force Weapons Specialists who have worked with guided missiles and strategic intercontinental ballistic missile systems (this is fitting for someone who uses a mechanical arrow).
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Contains a major spoiler — show
The Zune that Kraglin (Sean Gunn) gives to Quill (Chris Pratt) towards the end of the film was a type of digital music player made by Microsoft between 2006 and 2011. It was later discontinued because of poor sales compared to the iPod and other digital music players, and was never something that "everybody's listening to on Earth".
- #242
Contains a major spoiler — show
Kurt Russell plays Ego in this film, a villain that wants to replace all life across the universe with its own self. Russell also starred in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) as Capt MacReady who finds himself in a battle to survive against an alien being ("the Thing") that apparently aims to assimilate all sentient beings to itself: a subtle distinction, but fecund similarity between these alien villains haunting two Russell films.
- #243
Contains a major spoiler — show
The opening battle sequence resembles the first issue of the comic book in 2008, which featured the newly formed Guardians battling 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 are working for the Sovereign race, which is later revealed to be in possession of Adam Warlock's cocoon. Both the Sovereign and the Church become adversaries of the Guardians.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
The film contains homages to Kurt Russell movies: When Ego trains Peter, he has him hold his hands together to make blue lightning. This is very similar to the beginning of Russell's adventure film Big Trouble in Little China (1986). Further, when Ego's body is regenerating, the last part of his body to form is the area around his left eye. Russell previously played Snake Plissken in Escape from New York (1981) and Escape from L.A. (1996), a character who wore an eyepatch over his left eye.
- #247
Contains a major spoiler — show
When the Sovereign chase the Guardians, they use remotely piloted ships. The consoles they are operating look like the ones in video game arcades back in the 1980s and 1990s, especially when the eliminated pilots crowd round the last remaining starfighter, cheering him on. In another nod to these classic games, the Guardians fly into a Quantum Asteroid Field to escape. "Asteroids" is a very early arcade console game.
- #248
Contains a major spoiler — show
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.
- #249
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).
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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.
- #252
Contains a major spoiler — show
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.
Deeper Meaning (12)
- #253
The idea of a self-contained mind spontaneously appearing into existence, similar to Ego the Living Planet Kurt Russell in this movie, is called "Boltzmann brains." The argument suggests that in a universe that exists forever, one is more likely to be a Boltzmann brain hallucinating reality than a real being.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
Many older viewers found the use of the song My Sweet Lord to be used in bad taste, as it was originally released during unsettled times and provided the masses with a genuine touch of spirituality in an otherwise self-absorbed world. Associating the song with Ego was taken as a sign of insensitivity and lack of cultural awareness on the part of the producers. However it represents Ego's maniacal narcissism that he thinks the song is about him.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
When Ego talks Star-Lord about his real mission, he establishes that all lifeforms he found in this traveling by the universe were disappointing, realizing that his purpose in life was to turn all the universe in an extension of himself. It makes honor to his name, since that Ego is a Latin word to mean "I" or "Me", in a sense of extreme pride and vanity, feeling superior to all the rest and despising them by the same reason.
- #260
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.
- #261
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Contains a major spoiler — show
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).
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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.
Life & Family (3)
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According to Chris Pratt, shooting this movie helped him come to terms with his father's death. Although he passed away while Pratt was filming Jurassic World (2015) in 2014, the actor didn't really get a chance to deal with the death at the time because he was busy filming and wanted to keep the rest of the cast's spirits up. For a film that director James Gunn has described as a "story about fathers," Pratt was able to open up old wounds that had been healing for some time, and acknowledge the fact that there are some wounds that cannot ever be completely healed, such as the death of a parent.
- #266
Olivia Jackson, the stunt woman for Nebula on the first movie, suffered a traumatic brain injury and a left arm injury that led to an amputation, as well as multiple fractures to the left side of her face, which required reconstructive surgery. These injuries occurred when she struck a misplaced camera crane while performing a motorcycle stunt during filming for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016). Coincidentally, Nebula (in this movie and in Vol. 1) has a prosthetic left arm and reconstructed left side of her face.
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Sources & editorial notes
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