Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Star Pom Klementieff Teases the Film's Surprising Backstory

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 star Pom Klementieff is teasing Marvel fans with the surprising amount of backstory they're going to get for one character in the ensemble of misfits. Klementieff (who plays Mantis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) was on the red carpet at the GotGVol3 premiere and was doing an interview reflecting on the long road to getting the film made, and what kind of film fans are ultimately going to get from her, writer/director James Gunn and their crew: 

"The script was incredible, and the arc of the characters – so good," Pom Klementieff told Variety, before singling out one character who gets a particularly big spotlight this time around: 

"You get to dive into Rocket's backstory, where he comes from" Klementieff explained. "And I remember even as an audience [member] before I was cast to play Mantis, I remember when he takes his shirt off, and you see all the scars, all the things he has in his back, and I was like 'What is that?' And James Gunn knew, back then, what it was, and he just planned everything, you know? So it's the beauty of knowing a little bit more about each character." 

The trailer, TV spots, and clips for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 have indicated – pretty hard – that Rocket will be getting a significant origin story in this film. The first trailer for Guardians 3 teased the creepy role of the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) in Rocket's transformation from a typical animal into the cyber-enhanced, hyper-intelligent being he is now. The dialogue snippets and footage of the previews have all pointed to a thematic arc of ending the pattern of running from the past and coming full circle to face it. 

For Rocket, that means facing the High Evolutionary – and those traumatic events that have clearly been part of Rocket's character in the previous two movies. As Pom Klementieff points out, it's wild that James Gunn had this entire trilogy arc planned out from the very beginning, over a decade ago. And, given everything that happened in those years, it's just as wild that Gunn's full vision made it onto the screen. That's something the people over at his new DC Studios job are totally unfamiliar with... 

The first reactions to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are now online. It will hit theaters on May 5th.