Saturday is easily one of the most busiest days of the San Diego Comic-Con. But the biggest crowd tends to spend all hours of the day not on the floor acquiring collectables, but watching footage over at Hall H for some of the most highly anticipated films. While this year is one of the weakest that Hall H has to offer, there are some studios who still recognize the value of what that venue can do for their films. And Marvel is one of them.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is one of those films that will make an appearance at SDCC later this month, and now we are getting an early look at who could possibly be joining the Guardians on their quest thanks to a recently released piece of concept art. Check out the concept art here below.

The image was released on both Entertainment Weekly and director James Gunn’s official Facebook account. From left to right, it sees Drax (Dave Bautista), Groot (voice of Vin Diesel), Yondu (Michael Rooker), Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), a heroine with antennae, Rocket (voice of Bradley Cooper), Nebula (Karen Gillan), and Gamora (Zoe Saldana). So who is that person with antennae standing so heroically next to Star-Lord? Well, it is none other than Mantis, who will be played by Pom Klementieff (Spike Lee’s Oldboy).

Drawn by Andy Park, Gunn says the concept art led them “a lot as we were developing the film.”

Executive producer Jonathan Schwartz told EW that Mantis “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.” However, she may not be the only new character that’s being “added” to the film.

Gunn has spoken about how family will be one of the themes of the film, specifically fathers. So maybe Mantis will be that introverted child of this family who learns to interact from her older brothers and sisters. What’s even more interesting is that Nebula can also be seen in the lineup. The first piece of concept art from the first film had the core group of heroes, so can we expect to see Nebula and Yondu joining the Guardians since they are in this new piece of concept art?

But that isn’t the only new character that will be joining the film. Groot is also a new character, so to speak. Schwartz says audiences will be seeing a Groot that is not like the one they saw in 2014. “He doesn’t have the wisdom and experience of that Groot,” Schwartz says. “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?”

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters on May 5, 2017.

Concept Art

[Source: EW | James Gunn Facebook]