by: S. Scott Stanikmas – Senior Staff Writer
NOW ON TWITTER @IR_Supernerd

We all know the spiel by now. Director James Gunn has said that if it doesn’t come directly from his mouth most rumors regarding Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 are just that – rumors. But these are some interesting tidbits that are just too good to pass up on.

These could be potential SPOILERS, so for those that want to go in fresh, turn back now…

.

.

.

.

.

Still reading? Awesome. Geek.com has a couple of neat little scoops regarding team membership and what could be quite the sizable obstacle for everyone’s favorite space-faring superteam. Let’s start with the teammates.

According to the website we can expect three new team members to join the Guardians’ ranks. Two of them we’ve already seen – Yondu, played by Michael Rooker, and Nebula, portrayed by Karen Gillain. New to the mix will be Mantis, a character that debuted way back in the day in Marvel’s more cosmic comics. The thought is that newcomer Pom Klementieff, who signed on a few months back, will be Mantis.

That’s an interesting couple of names. I’m especially curious as to how Nebula gets on the team, seeing as she tried to kill most of the Guardians in the first film.

The second bit of news regards what I think could be a possible antagonist for the crew. Ego, The Living Planet is expected to be in the new film. For those not in the know, Ego, The Living Planet is just that – a living planet. In the comics he was a regular plane until he was granted sentience and then tried to figure out his place in the grand scheme of things. He’s fought alongside heroes and fought against them.

Ego does have a history with Thanos, so if the Mad Titan were looking to distract the Guardians while he stole their Infinity Gem that wouldn’t sound like something too outside the realm of reasonable thinking.

James Gunn usually has no problem debunking things like this if he deems the news to be getting a little too out there, so for now we’ll treat these as simple “What-Ifs” for the time being. But it does make me wonder if Kurt Russell would look right as a floating sentient planet.