‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2’ adds Mantis to the team

The pre-production of “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” is in full swing. After reports that Matthew McConaughey turned down the villain role offered to him, Marvel casts Pom Kelentieff for an unspecified role.

According to Deadline, Klementieff will play Mantis, the half-Vietnamese, half-German daughter of Libra with ties to the Kree and Thanos.

Mantis is created by Steve Englehard and Don Heck. She is a superhero and is a former member of the Avengers in the comic books.

She appears in the 2007 miniseries “Annihilation Conquest: Star-Lord” where she is a Kree prisoner recruited by Peter Quill a.k.a Star-Lord to join him for a mission. After joining Quill’s team, she became an uneasy counselor of the group.

In the comics, Mantis is a telepath and master martial artist with accelerated healing factor. She also has the ability to see the future partially with astral projection.

Rob Keyes of Screen Rant says that her ability will come in handy if Marvel decides to explore time-travel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In an interview, franchise director James Gunn told Screen Rant that he plans to add more characters to the team of Guardians and teases, “We may have some Guardians we’ve already met.”

In the same interview, he said that he plans to have at least two women in the sequel of the film and in the comic books, Mantis is that other female character who joins Peter Quill’s team.

Klementieff is best known for her role in Spike Lee’s “Oldboy.” She also appeared in “Loop” and “Sleepless Night” and will star in the upcoming film, “Hacker’s Game.”

She is set to join the returning cast of Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Michael Rooker as Yandu, Benicio del Toro as The Collector with the voices of Bradley Cooper as Rocket and Vin Diesel as Groot.

“Guardians of the Galaxy 2” opens on may 5, 2017.

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