'Guardians Of the Galaxy Vol. 2' Concept Art Reveals The New Team

If was there at Comic-Con when James Gunn and Marvel revealed the amazing first footage from Guardians of the Galaxy, and if there's one thing I'm actually upset about missing this year it's not being around when they reveal Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. To get some buzz going for the upcoming Hall H panel event, Gunn and EW have debuted a piece of concept art from artist Andy Park that not only shows the team we all know and love, but some surprising new additions to the roster.

The piece gives us our first look at Pom Klementieff as Mantis, who will be joining the team along with Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Yondu (Michael Rooker). What in the world could cause Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to fight alongside her hated sibling? And why would Yondu suddenly work with Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) given how he got screwed over in the prior film? The image also shows Dave Bautista as Drax, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, and Vin Diesel as...awwwww, baby Groot.  Executive producer Jonathan Schwartz explained to EW that baby Groot is vastly different from the tree creature we are familiar with...

“He doesn’t have the wisdom and experience of that Groot. He’s a younger Groot and a more rambunctious Groot. The question is, is he the same Groot, just smaller? Or is he a different Groot that’s sprung up from the seed of the first Groot?”

And what about Mantis, a character even die-hard Marvel fans may not know too much about?

"She has never really experienced social interaction. Everything she learns about dealing with people, she learns from the Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a very weird group to learn your social intricacies from.”

Lacking in social graces, eh? Sounds like she'll fit right in. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opens May 5th 2017.