After a wait of nearly six years, fans finally have a glimpse of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, the third instalment of the Marvel blockbuster.
The trailer debuted at São Paulo’s Comic-Con Experience 2022, also known as CCXP22, which is taking place this weekend – running December 1-4.
Both President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige and Zoe Saldaña, who plays former Zehoberei assassin Gamora in the franchise, were present at the screening of the trailer.
As the trailer opens the camera zooms towards Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), aka Star-Lord (a celestial-human hybrid who becomes the unlikely leader of a motley crew of reluctantly heroic individuals) who is standing on the bridge of a spaceship. When the ship lands in what looks like a perfectly normal American suburb, it’s a varied group of aliens, rather than humans, that receive him and his crew.
Then the audience is shown a sequence of exciting space-related scenes: in one, the Guardians, all in coloured astronaut suits, are falling towards a strange octopus-looking planet. In another, there is an explosion as their spacecraft seems to have broken a planetary barrier; in another, they are fighting a giant squid-like creature.
“We were gone for quite a while, but no matter what happens next the galaxy still needs its guardians,” says Pratt.
The clips become increasingly emotional: in one, Rocket the racoon (played by Bradley Cooper) defiantly says, “I’m done running,” to Quill while flames rage behind them; in another, Pom Klementieff’s Mantis is crying. There are fights – we also get to see Guardian-destroyer Adam Warlock (played by Will Poulter) for the first time – interstellar journeys and shoot-outs, setting the third film up to be a thrilling watch.
An emotional track brings the two-minute trailer together, and, as the clip reaches its denouement, Rocket says (perhaps slightly ominously) “We’ll all fly away together one last time, into the forever — that beautiful sky.”
Happily, the motley crew returns: along with Pratt, Cooper and Klementieff, Zoe Saldaña is, intriguingly, back as Gamora (she was killed by Thanos in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War), Dave Bautista is Drax the Destroyer, Vin Diesel is everyone’s favourite sentient tree-organism Baby Groot, Karen Gillan is Nebula and Sean Gunn is Yondu Ravager Clan mate Kraglin Obfonteri.
Chukwudi Iwuji will play the High Evolutionary, a powerfully psychic being, and Maria Bakalova voices Cosmo the Spacedog.
“Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him to defend the universe along with protecting one of their own,” says Disney about the forthcoming film.
Filmmaker James Gunn, who made Guardians of the Galaxy’s Vol. 1 and 2, as well as The Suicide Squad, is directing and Feige is producing.
The Guardians also reunited in the November-released Disney+ special, Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. In it, the crew went to Earth looking for a Christmas present for Quill.
