Chris Pratt in 'Guardians of the Galaxy': Who else could join him for the comic book movie?

Chris Pratt is playing the lead role in the Marvel film 'Guardians of the Galaxy.' Will actors such as Benicio del Toro and Lee Pace portray other members of the superhero team?

July 9, 2013

Marvel Studios takes to the stage of the biggest hall of the San Diego Convention Center for Comic-Con International 2013 in less than two weeks where they will showcase Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thor: The Dark World, not unlike they did three years ago in a combined presentation for their respective origin stories.

With filming now underway in London where the Thor sequel previously shot, Guardians of the Galaxy has most of its cast locked down and it’s a safe bet they’ll have at least a small part to play in Marvel’s film showcase as well to clarify many of the rumors and unanswered questions, some of which we may already have answers to.

Chris Pratt is the new lead for Marvel’s next hopeful success story and launch of a franchise, but fans who know him from Parks and Recreation may have had trouble picturing him as a superhero. As we demonstrated six months ago when he was first cast as Peter Quill, Pratt showed off his ripped physique for Zero Dark Thirty with a self-portrait. Pratt shared the following (very similar) image yesterday on his Instagram account and Twitter, showing that he’s leaned down even more and changed his hair color/style to match the current incarnation of the character known as Star-Lord from Marvel Comics.

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As for some of the non-human roles we’ve heard rumors about for several months, Den of Geek learned from a source who Benicio del Toro, Lee Pace and Karen Gillan are all playing. Below are the unofficially confirmed roles for the three along with my descriptions of each from previous Screen Rant articles on the characters.

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Benicio del Toro as The Collector

The Collector is a rather important being in the Marvel Comics universe, and one of the oldest. His real name is Taneleer Tivan and he’s the last surviving member of his species, one of the first intelligent races formed after the creation of the universe. That fact made him worthy enough to be granted immortality from “Death” – the character for which Thanos (see: The Avengers) aims to serve and impress. More on The Collector and his family here.

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Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser

Ronan is a key member of the Kree, one of the alien races rumored years ago to potentially be a part of the story of The Avengers. The Kree are enemies of the Skrulls, and Ronan is a super powerful judge, jury and executioner type figure who began as a villain but turned out to be a hero of his people. More on Ronan and the Kree here.

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Karen Gillan as Nebula

We speculated that Gillan could be playing Death but the latest news indicates she’s playing Nebula, a villainous space pirate who used her fleet to attack various alien civilizations and The Avengers. The Luphomoid has plenty of history with Thanos and The Infinity Gauntlet which will undoubtedly factor into the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

That leaves several key roles still unannounced. Who is playing Thanos and is he the reason Marvel is chatting with Vin Diesel? Who is voicing Rocket Raccoon and Groot? Is Richard Rider’s Nova going to be introduced since Nova Corps will be a part of the film?

Rob Keyes blogs at Screen Rant.