And Our First Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Casting Is…

We still have a ways to go before seeing the next Guardians of the Galaxy, but the casting process has already begun on a number of important roles.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, actress Pom Klementieff is our very first addition to the cast, although we don’t know for sure yet what character she’ll be playing.

What do we know?

All we’ve heard so far is that it’s a “key” role in the Guardians 2 story, and that Marvel’s casting call specifically sought out Asian actresses.

Does that give us any hints?

Well, Asian actress, Guardians of the Galaxy movie… it’s got to be Mantis right?

In the comics, Mantis is a half-Vietnamese, half-German martial arts expert with psychic abilities. Her early stories had her interacting with members of the Avengers quite a bit, but more recently, she’s been appearing much more often on the cosmic side of things. She’s currently living on Knowhere, and eventually became a full-fledged member of the Guardians team.

Aside from her, there are plenty of great Guardians-related female characters to choose from (I saw Phyla Vell mentioned more than once on social media), although none that I can think of that would specifically require an Asian actress.

How about Pom Klementieff, where have I seen her before?

You might recognize her from the 2013 remake of Oldboy. Aside from that though, her filmography is mostly smaller French films and shorts.

Any other casting news?

Besides Klementieff’s casting, we also recently learned from Variety that Matthew McConaughey was offered the film’s “villain” role, but turned it down. That doesn’t tell us a whole lot about the character Marvel wanted him to play, but it must have been a pretty interesting part for them to have approached an actor as big as McConaughey.

We’ll be hearing quite a bit more about that role and others in the coming weeks though, as Marvel and James Gunn are expected to wrap up the casting process before the end of the year. Shooting will begin in early 2016, for a release date of May 5, 2017.