47 Fun Facts About Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Who plays Peter Quill, the self-styled Star-Lord, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Chris Pratt has said that playing a son who meets his long-lost father reopened his grief for his own, wounds he felt would never be totally healed.

Which Marvel film came out next after Vol. 2?

Spider-Man: Homecoming followed two months later, in July 2017. Marvel had first pencilled in Vol. 2 itself for late July before moving it up to the first weekend of May.

Who plays Ego, revealed in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to be Peter Quill's father?

Kurt Russell was the leading man's idea: the director admitted he had not thought of him until then. The opening scene shows Russell digitally restored to his 1980 self.

Baby Groot dances through the opening battle of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to which ELO song?

Mr. Blue Sky plays while the team's fight with a giant monster is pushed into the background behind him. The film's director danced the routine himself as the animators' reference.

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which song does Ego call possibly Earth's greatest composition?

Brandy plays over the film's very first scene, set in 1980. Ego later likens himself to its sailor, who loves the sea more than the girl, to explain why he left Quill's mother.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 earned its one Oscar nomination, at the 90th Academy Awards, in which category?

Best Visual Effects: the nomination honoured the artists behind Ego's living planet and a dancing Baby Groot, but on the night the Oscar went to Blade Runner 2049.

High Priestess Ayesha leads which genetically engineered golden race?

The Sovereign do their fighting at a distance: when the Guardians cross them, they send a fleet of golden attack pods, each flown by remote control from a battle room at home.

What do the Guardians protect from the Abilisk in the opening job?

Anulax batteries: the fee for guarding them is a prisoner, Gamora's sister Nebula. Rocket then pockets a few on the way out, and the clients come after the whole team.

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Quill compares himself and Gamora to a couple from which TV show?

Cheers: he means Sam and Diane, who never admit their feelings because "the ratings would go down". Quill was taken from Earth in 1988, so his references stop there.

Which Ravager leads the mutiny against Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Taserface chose the name himself to inspire fear, and gets laughed at for it. In 2012 the director had called the comics original the dumbest character ever and vowed never to film him.

Which Ravager leader had exiled Yondu's crew for child trafficking?

Stakar Ogord cast Yondu out for breaking the Ravager code by delivering children to Ego. He relents only at the end, when he brings the Ravager fleets to honour Yondu's funeral.

Ego belongs to which ancient race of god-like beings?

Celestials: Ego says he began as a lone mind adrift in space, built a planet around himself layer by layer over millions of years, then made a human body to go looking for other life.

What does Ego admit he gave Meredith Quill?

A brain tumor: Ego says he loved Meredith so much that one more visit to Earth would have kept him there, so he killed her. The confession snaps Quill out of his trance.

Whose song Father and Son plays over Yondu's funeral at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Cat Stevens: the director chose the 1970 ballad after hearing Howard Stern try to play it on his radio show. It follows Yondu's last words to Quill, that Ego "wasn't your daddy".

Who takes up Yondu's telekinetic arrow and control-fin in the credits scenes?

Kraglin, Yondu's first mate, inherits the fin and the arrow but not the skill: his first big whistle sends the arrow round a corner and straight into Drax.

In a mid-credits scene of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, what has happened to Groot?

He grows into a teenager: Quill walks into a room overrun with vines and tells a sulky Groot, who will not look up from his video game, to clean it up.

Who plays Mantis in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Pom Klementieff, a French actress then best known for Spike Lee's Oldboy, won the part after the director had auditioned hundreds of actors for it.

Which actress plays Ayesha, the golden High Priestess, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Elizabeth Debicki, already 6 ft 3 in, was put in platform shoes that raised her to 6 ft 7 in, because the director wanted his priestess to tower over the hero.

Which Vol. 2 star recorded his lines in 16 languages?

Vin Diesel had one phrase to master in each, since every line Groot has here is "I am Groot". He had recorded six languages for the first film and went up to 16 for the sequel.

Who acted out Rocket's movements on set during the filming of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Sean Gunn, the director's brother, played Rocket on set for the other actors to work with, and also appears as one of Yondu's Ravagers. Bradley Cooper supplies the voice.

Which studio returned Ego's film rights to Marvel in a character-swap deal?

20th Century Fox handed Ego over in return for Marvel's permission to change the powers of Negasonic Teenage Warhead in Deadpool, a swap one of that film's writers later confirmed.

In the comics, who is Peter Quill's father, the role Ego takes in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

J'son, ruler of the Spartax empire, is Star-Lord's father in the comics. The director said early on that the film would use someone else, and a rights swap with another studio freed up Ego.

The 1980 opening sequence with young Ego is set in which US state?

Missouri: the scene was shot in St. Charles, near where the director grew up. Asked later about his father, Quill can say only that he "ain't from Missouri".

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Stan Lee tells the Watchers about his time as what?

A FedEx delivery man: that was his cameo in Captain America: Civil War, which is set after this film. The director owned up: "I screwed up; I wasn't thinking."

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Ego briefly takes on the likeness of which TV star?

David Hasselhoff: as a boy Quill carried the Knight Rider star's photo and told other children he was his father, so Ego puts on that face in the middle of their fight.

Which actor is seen dancing, in Thor: Ragnarok costume, in the end credits of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Jeff Goldblum, dancing as the Grandmaster months before Ragnarok opened. Marvel's Kevin Feige said they put it in for fun, since in the comics he is the Collector's brother.

Miley Cyrus has an uncredited voice cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as which Ravager?

Mainframe has a single line in a credits scene. The director offered Cyrus the part after admiring the tone of her voice while watching her as a coach on The Voice.

Who plays the Ravager captain Aleta Ogord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Michelle Yeoh appears for a few seconds in a credits scene. The director cast her because he is, in his own words, "a big fan of '90s Hong Kong films".

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Yondu gleefully declares that he is which fictional character?

Mary Poppins: Quill says Yondu looks like her as he floats down holding his arrow. Yondu has never heard of her, asks "Is he cool?" and takes the name with pride.

After the first film shot in England, where was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 made?

Pinewood Atlanta Studios: the director said its 18 sound stages let the whole production fit on a single lot. The first film had been shot entirely in Britain.

At the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Nebula leaves to hunt down which adoptive father?

Thanos: Nebula tells her sister that he took her apart piece by piece each time she lost a fight to her, and she turns down a place on the team to go and kill him.

Who composed the orchestral score of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Tyler Bates, back from the first film, again wrote parts of the score before the shoot, so that the music could be played on set and the scenes filmed to it.

Which former Doctor Who companion plays Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Karen Gillan was told on the first film, when Nebula was a minor villain, that the plan was to make her a Guardian. Here she begins as a prisoner and ends as an ally.

Which actor turned down the villain's role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and made The Dark Tower instead?

Matthew McConaughey said he would have felt like "an amendment" in a colourful part made for another big-name actor, and preferred to create Stephen King's Man in Black.

After Ego destroys Quill's Walkman in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which music player replaces it?

A Zune: Microsoft had discontinued its iPod rival in 2012, so the gift arrives as a relic. The joke stuck, and Microsoft revived the brand to help promote Vol. 3.

The inside of Ego's planet in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was designed from which kind of mathematical art?

Fractals: the director hired the fractal artist Hal Tenny to help design the planet's core, and its endlessly repeating shapes pushed the effects teams past their previous limits.

Which song topped the iTunes Rock Chart after featuring in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 teaser trailer?

Fox on the Run, by the glam band Sweet, is on the Awesome Mix Vol. 2 album yet is the one track never heard in the film itself: it plays only in the trailer.

Which country was the biggest market for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 outside the US and Canada?

China, where it took about $100 million, almost twice the British total in second place. That helped Vol. 2 pass the first film's entire worldwide gross about three weeks after its US release.

Which snack brand sold bags with a built-in cassette-style player of Awesome Mix Vol. 2?

Doritos: the limited-edition bag had a tape-deck-style player with a headphone socket built into the packaging. It played the whole soundtrack and could be recharged.

Glenn Close filmed lines for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as which returning character, only to be cut?

Nova Prime, Close's Xandarian leader from the first film, was dropped because the director felt he "was trying to cram" her in rather than letting it happen organically.

Which Mission: Impossible regular cameos as the Ravager captain Charlie-27 in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Ving Rhames is one of the famous faces who gather in a credits scene as Yondu's old crew, written as a nod to the original Guardians of the Galaxy of the comics.

A cut scene from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 showed Quill and Gamora doing what, later seen in Infinity War?

Kissing: the director shot the kiss but cut it because it "came in a weird time", then begged the makers of Infinity War to include one so the couple's bond was clear.

Ben Browder, an alien admiral in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, played astronaut John Crichton in which sci-fi series?

Farscape: the director counts it among his favourite sci-fi shows, so when he met its star at an awards ceremony he asked him to make the cameo.

What is the name of Yondu's Ravager ship in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Eclector: the film's biggest set, it was built in sections that could be detached and rearranged to play different parts of the ship, which Yondu ends up blowing to pieces.

Which actor plays Yondu, the blue-skinned Ravager who raised Peter Quill, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Michael Rooker had been in every film the director had made, which is why he says he hated writing Yondu's death. Early drafts even had the character saved at the last moment.

At which 2014 event was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 first announced?

San Diego Comic-Con: Marvel put the sequel on its release schedule there days before the first film had even opened, with the same writer-director already attached.

Which character did the director cut from the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 script as one too many?

Adam Warlock was in an early treatment but was dropped as "one character too many". A credits scene still shows his golden cocoon, and he finally appeared in Vol. 3.