What surprise did Marvel have in store for the fans who waited all day in Hall H on Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con? How about the entire cast of Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as the first footage from the movie? Marvel executive Kevin Feige was happy to bring up the already announced castmembers: Michael Rooker, Karen Gillen, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Benicio Del Toro, David Bautista, Zoe Saldana, and Chris Pratt. Director James Gunn was also there to introduce them to the crowd.

The film has been in production for roughly two weeks, and the crew came straight from London just for the panel and were flying back to London that night.

Chris Pratt talked about his process of slimming down for the role, which may or may not have involved a tapeworm, and then explained his character of Star-Lord as though he was Tom Hanks in Castaway, with Bautista playing the role of Wilson. Then he got a bit more serious and explained Star-Lord’s background as a bit of a jerk who finds a new family in deep space.

David Bautista was still at a loss to explain why he got the job with much humility, while Gunn explained that he earned the job through the audition process and his incredible acting. He acknowledged that he is still the most inexperienced of the actors and that he is thankful for the help of the rest of the cast.

Benicio Del Toro said that his part in the film hasn’t started yet, but he was impressed by the script that was sent to him, and was very excited by the project.

Lee Pace showed off his Marvel knowledge when talk about his role of Ronan the Accuser, but couldn’t give much information about his part in the movie.

Djimon Hounsou let it slip that his role as Korvath is connected to Thanos in some way, which is a big clue how the film will tie into the Marvel Universe.

Karen Gillen revealed that she had shaved her head for the role of Nebula, and went so far as to throw her wig into the crowd, which may have not been the best idea given the rabid crowd at San Diego Comic-Con.

The panel ended with footage from the film which included the first look at CGI characters Rocket Raccoon and Groot. The footage started with Star-Lord stealing something from someone and getting caught in the action and arrested. Then we switch to John C. Riley’s character giving a brief introduction of each member of the team. You could see a lot of James Gunn’s humorous style in the footage shown, and even at this stage, it feels completely different from any other Marvel movie.

We still don’t know who is going to voice Rocket Raccoon or Groot, since the names were not announced and neither character had a line in the footage that was shown off.

Guardians of the Galaxy is still on track for a late 2014 release.

Panel Photos

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[All panel photos by Dave3 for Geeks of Doom]