Guardians of the Galaxy 2 trailer: 7 easter eggs and talking points you may have missed

From Groot on Rocket's shoulders to the Abilisk

With the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story drawing nearer by the minute, numerous trailers expected to run before the Disney film have been uploaded to the internet.

One of those is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, also a Disney film under their Marvel Studios branch). The full-length clip includes additional footage to that seen in the original teaser released alongside Doctor Strange.

So, what can we learn from the two-minute clip? Quite a lot, actually. Here we run down seven Easter eggs and talking points from the trailer (with some wild speculation to boot).

1. The monster at the beginning is an Abilisk - a huge worm/dog/slug creature previously seen in concept art. The most likely scenario is that the team is hired to defeat the beast following their growing fame throughout the galaxy - James Gunn previously confirmed the film is set only months after the first with the team having become famous bounty hunter-like types.

2. Awesome Mix Vol. 2 also makes a brief appearance. Earlier this year, a separate trailer was shown at Comic-Con, including two songs: Jay and the Americans’ “Come a Little Bit Closer” and Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain”. Now, we can safely assume “Fox on the Run” by Sweet will feature on the cassette.

3. Baby Groot makes a hilarious appearance: he seemingly remembers everything but his maturity has plummeted. Exactly how this will play out remains unconfirmed but Vin Diesel is still doing the character’s voice. Expect baby Groot merchandise everywhere this time next year.

4. There’s a lovely nod to the first film with Groot riding Rocket’s shoulder while firing a weapon: in the first, Rocket rode upon Groot’s back.

5. At one stage we see Groot wearing a Ravenger suit in the same sequence which sees Rocket and Yondu leaving their prison. During Comic Con, a clip was debuted featuring Yondu and Rocket in prison together - presumably they escape with the help of Baby Groot.

6. Elizabeth Debicki will reportedly star as the film’s villain, Ayesha, a character related to the superhero Adam Warlock who has yet to appear. In the clip, it is unclear who the villain is, but the ships seen around five seconds in are thought to belong to the Sovereign people: Ayesha is their leader.

7. The Guardians team has changed, with Yondu and Nebula joining the squad. However, we see neither in this trailer, instead, the focus being on brand new character Mantis. In the comics, Mantis is brought up by Ego the Living Planet who is played by Kurt Russell and is Starlord’s father.

In other Marvel news, the Netflix series Luke Cage was recently renewed for a second series. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits UK cinemas 28 April 2017.