Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2: 20 New Details Just Revealed

After she was first teased in the two trailers that have appeared so far, Mantis' backstory and significance to the main story remained mysterious, but we now have some more detail.

She's based both on the comic iteration of the character and on James Gunn's original vision for the character. And intriguingly, she will be introduced as the right-hand employee of Kurt Russell's Ego:

"She works for him basically. That’s it. I think it’s very interesting to watch the relationship between Mantis and the other characters. Because like them, she’s an outcast."

So why does she end up being a Guardian? Does this all spell disaster for Ego? Or does she just leave her job when she finds more kindred spirits?

Gunn is also very clear on how great Pom Klementieff is in the role, and how perfect she was from the moment she auditioned:

"Well, I think Mantis is as odd and strange as Pom is. And I think she is an incredibly unique character. And I think she’s funny as poop. And she’s really funny. And she’s also a little creepy. And she’s great. She really is great. I remember when we were auditioning Star-Lord, you’re asking for this straight, white, dude and we screen tested 25 guys and it was really hard finding somebody great because, honestly, a lot of the really great guys in that age categories become movie stars. And to be auditioning Asian actresses was awesome. Truly, we screen tested four actresses who all four of them were totally incredible. It’s just Pom happened to fit the role the best, but it was a really amazing experience. And honestly, truly, an example of there’s a lot of actors out there who don’t get the opportunities of these lead roles that a regular white dude does."