Who's who in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3?

The last time we saw the lovable space scoundrel also known as Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), he’d just gotten some very heartwarming news. At the end of the Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special, after a Christmas celebration to lift his spirits, Mantis (Pom Klementieff) revealed to Peter that she’s his half-sister, as a fellow child of Ego (Kurt Russell). The news definitely made Peter feel more like he had a family after losing both his surrogate father Yondu (Michael Rooker) and his girlfriend Gamora (Zoe Saldana) in previous films. Now, as the Guardians embark on a new adventure, he’s hoping to get a little closer to the alternate version of Gamora from the past, who has no memory of their time together.

Time has definitely softened Drax the Destroyer. The warrior once bent on defeating Thanos and avenging his family’s death now has a chosen family in the Guardians team, and he definitely takes those bonds seriously. The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special saw him getting closer than ever to Mantis, and doing his best to make his teammates happy, even when he didn’t understand what they really wanted. That means Drax is all-in on helping his friends through whatever’s next, in what Drax actor Dave Bautista calls the character’s final adventure.

Ever since we met her in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, the alien with mental gifts known as Mantis (Pom Klementieff) had been keeping a secret from the other Guardians, namely that she was Ego’s daughter and, thus, Peter’s half-sister. It was a burden she bore because she didn’t want Peter to be reminded of his father’s evil, but in the Holiday Special she finally came clean, and was greeted with nothing but warmth and happiness. It’s a revelation that will only deepen the bond between Mantis and Peter, and allow the character to come into her own even more now that her deepest secret is out in the open.

It’s been a hard road for Nebula (Karen Gillan), the adopted daughter of Thanos, trained from a very young age to know nothing but violence, pain, and competition. She spent most of the first two Guardians films consumed by resentment and rage, much of it tied to her sister Gamora, who always seemed to fare better than she did. Then Nebula hashed things out with Gamora in Vol. 2, learned of her sister’s sacrifice in Avengers: Infinity War, and fought against Thanos alongside the other Guardians and the Avengers. Now she’s firmly on the Guardians team, and Vol. 3 will hopefully shed more light on exactly what that means to her.

Rocket (Bradley Cooper) has always been ready to go his own way, provided his old pal Groot (Vin Diesel) is along for the ride. He’s butted heads again and again with Quill over the leadership of the Guardians, and he’s shown a particular affinity for Nebula in part because of her ruthlessness. But Rocket’s bravado and toughness mask tremendous pain from his past that we’ll finally learn more about in Vol. 3. But what does that past mean for his future?

The original tree creature known as Groot (Vin Diesel) heroically sacrificed himself at the end of Guardians Of The Galaxy to save the rest of the team, but that wasn’t exactly the end for him. Rocket planted one of the splinters of Groot’s old body, and was able to grow a new Groot who acts more like Rocket’s son than his best friend. We’ve seen him growing and maturing ever since, and in Vol. 3 we’ll see the biggest, baddest version of this Groot yet, ready to jump into the fight alongside his fellow Guardians.

Let’s be clear: The version of Gamora we came to know and love in Guardians Of The Galaxy and its sequel is no longer with us. That Gamora died at the hands of Thanos in Infinity War, but thanks to the time-traveling hijinks of Avengers: Endgame, we have another Gamora, also played by Zoe Saldaña, along for the ride in Vol. 3. Sadly for the other members of the team, this Gamora never lived through their first adventures, so she’s not necessarily itching to be part of the group. Will Vol. 3 change her mind and give Peter and Gamora a new happily ever after?

The former right-hand man of Peter’s surrogate father—the Ravager known as Yondu, for those who need reminding—Kraglin (Sean Gunn) has been tagging along with the Guardians ever since Yondu’s death in Vol. 2, serving as a kind of big brother to Peter, and using Yondu’s telepathic arrow as his signature weapon. In Vol. 3, we can expect him to stick close to the Guardians crew, and in particular Peter, who he feels a special responsibility for now that Yondu is gone. He’s also the Guardians’ biggest remaining connection to the space mercenaries known as Ravagers, who might have a big role to play in future battles for the team.

We haven’t seen Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) since Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, but that doesn’t mean she’s forgotten about her old enemies. As you may remember, Ayesha hired the Guardians to protect the Anulax Batteries from the Abilisk. When the Guardians messed it up, she went after them with everything she had, and they humiliated her. In response, she’s created a new superweapon (more on him in a minute), and she’s ready to settle some old scores. She might not be the film’s top villain, but you can definitely expect to feel her regal presence.

A Marvel Comics favorite who debuted with a cameo appearance in the first Guardians film, Cosmo is a Soviet space race project who made her way into the wider cosmos and became a kind of adventurer in her own right. She became part of the Guardians team during the Holiday Special, when she also got a voice courtesy of Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm). In Vol. 3 we’ll get to learn more about how she fits into the Guardians’ larger team dynamic, both in Knowhere and beyond.

The Ravager commander known as Stakar (Sylvester Stallone) made his debut in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, where he dressed down Yondu for repeatedly violating Ravager rules, many of them tied to Yondu’s abduction of Peter in the first film. By the end of Vol. 2, Yondu’s sacrifice to save the entire galaxy from Ego was enough to win Stakar over once again. Realizing his old friend’s true nature, Stakar ordered a full Ravager funeral for Yondu, giving Peter and Kraglin some closure after the loss of their mentor. By Vol. 2's end, we saw Stakar heading out on an adventure with his own version of the Guardians, which means we may see a bit of a high-powered reunion in Vol. 3.

A Marvel Comics villain with a rich history, the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) is making his MCU debut in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and he’ll do it in a way that’s tied directly to Rocket’s origin. A scientist devoted to advancing his own versions of evolution, he created Rocket and Rocket’s animal friends using his own dark scientific methods, and rules from his home base known as Counter-Earth, where time and evolution work differently. How he’ll factor into the current Guardians adventure remains to be seen, but expect him to have a big role in Rocket’s flashbacks.

A classic Marvel character fans have been waiting for ever since his “cocoon” was an Easter egg in Guardians Of The Galaxy, Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) is a super-powered artificial humanoid with vast physical gifts that make him a major cosmic threat to anyone who gets on his bad side. The MCU version of the character arrives as a creation of Ayesha and the Sovereign, which means he’ll be in direct opposition to the Guardians in this film. That said, he has just been born, so like the Vision before him, he has a lot of potential to learn and change as the film goes on, and a lot of potential for an important role in the MCU.

As already noted, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 will reveal a substantial part of Rocket’s origin story, and in the process will introduce us to various intelligent animal characters who the not-a-raccoon once called his friends. Among them is Lylla (voiced by Linda Cardellini), an otter also created by the High Evolutionary. We don’t know (yet) what she’s been doing since her creation, but we do know that Lylla has an intriguing comic book history. Marvel Comics has basically set her up to be Rocket’s soulmate, which means she could have a very emotional role to play in Vol. 3.