Guardians of the Galaxy: New Concept Art, Saldana Confirmed

In the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was pinned down about Marvel's cinematic "Phase II" and gave a few details about each of the currently-in-production movies from the studio. He also gave readers a look a new piece of concept art from James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy, which is set to go into production soon in London, and confirmed long-simmering (and basically confirmed) rumors that Star Trek star Zoë Saldaña will appear in the film as Gamora and Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer. "It's a huge story on a massive canvas," Feige says. "We can take it to all those crazy places as long as all the characters respond in an emotionally truthful way. That's why I believe people are going to respond to Chris Pratt and to an alien Zoë Saldana—because they did respond to that one time before [with Avatar]. And to a tree and a raccoon who, it is certainly our intention, will steal the whole movie." Avatar isn't a bad touchstone, considering that it's one of only two movies ever made to make more money than Marvel's The Avengers. While sci-fi has been a risky proposition for Disney in the recent past, Star Trek Into Darkness is tracking huge and Disney's own Star Wars Episode VII is arguably the most-anticipated film of the next five years. The art at left also comes from the article, and is an image of Peter Quill, who would later become Star-Lord, having his first experience with extra-terrestrials as a young man.