If you didn't see the first Guardians of the Galaxy, you might want to stop reading right now -- because spoilers are about to happen.
Noble tree-alien Groot sacrificed himself at the end of Guardians, only to return a short time later as a tiny, dancing sprout that the Internet immediately fell in love with. Now the very first promotional photo for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 is here -- and Groot is still so tiny.
You can see him perched on his pal Drax the Destroyer's shoulder, hanging onto the muscled murderer-turned-galactic savior's ear. All five of the first movie's accidental heroes are captured in silhouette, surrounded by road cases. This picture screams: "We're getting the band back together."
Guardians director James Gunn tweeted the image, but it's also accompanied by an announcement from Marvel Studios that production has officially begun on Vol. 2, which is set to release on May 5, 2017.
Official Photography on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has begun. You're very welcome. pic.twitter.com/741upZ21g7
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) February 17, 2016
The original lineup of the Guardians is returning: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper. They're joined by supporting players Michael Rooker (Yondu), Karen Gillan (Nebula) and Sean Gunn (Kraglin) as well as newcomers Pom Klementieff (Oldboy), Elizabeth Debicki (Everest), Chris Sullivan (The Knick) and Kurt Russell (he's Kurt f*cking Russell, folks).
Marvel hasn't officially confirmed the identities of the four new cast members, though Gunn revealed on Twitter that Klementieff is playing Mantis. The character has a long, convoluted comic book history that actually includes appearances in DC, Eclipse and Image comics, but more recent iterations of Mantis frame her as telepathic headshrinker for the Guardians team.
Little is known about the Guardians sequel beyond the fact that it will dig deeper into Peter "Star-Lord" Quill's personal history, specifically who his father is and why he's important. For those that don't remember, the movie version of Quill never knew his father and only has his mother's deathbed description -- that dear, old dad is actually an angel made of light -- to go on.
While this promo shot doesn't come from the movie, Groot's size in the image suggests that the sequel picks up only a short time after the events of the first movie. Of course, Groot is also a fictional tree-alien, so who really knows how long it really takes him to grow beyond his sprout size?
Chris Pratt decided to have a little fun with the promo photo's reveal on Instagram. This is one of those things that's better seen that described, soooooooo... enjoy.
A photo posted by chris pratt (@prattprattpratt) on Feb 17, 2016 at 11:20am PST
A photo posted by chris pratt (@prattprattpratt) on Feb 17, 2016 at 11:19am PST
A photo posted by chris pratt (@prattprattpratt) on Feb 17, 2016 at 11:19am PST
A photo posted by chris pratt (@prattprattpratt) on Feb 17, 2016 at 11:19am PST
He posted those in reverse order -- presumably as a drawn-out reveal -- but we can probably all agree that it works much better as an epic "ENHANCE."
UPDATED Feb. 17 2:44 p.m. ET to include Chris Pratt's Instagram posts.