The much-awaited sequel of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise "Guardians of the Galaxy," aptly titled "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," introduces new characters: Mantis, Ayesha and Taserface. French actress Pom Klementieff is set to play the role of Mantis, "an alien with empathic powers" who can alter emotions.

Mantis travels with Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell), Peter Quill's father. Although the nature of their relationship is not yet revealed according to a report from IGN, Klementieff described her character's association with Ego in an interview with Scott Chitwood of ComingSoon.net: "And she's always with - at the beginning, she's spent her life with Kurt Russell's character. She was pretty lonely and then she meets the Guardians and... that's it. She has empathic powers, so it's connected with feelings and emotions." Klementieff added that Mantis is Ego's ally.

Meanwhile, with the defeat of Ronan the Accuser in the first film, the Guardians are set to face new villains: Ayesha and Taserface. However, unlike their predecessor, these two do not have ties with Thanos. Elizabeth Debicki portrays Ayesha, leader of the Sovereign race; Chris Sullivan depicts Taserface, who now leads the Ravagers. Ayesha sends the Guardians on a mission to find Nebula. However, Rocket's action was deemed a violation of their pact with Ayesha, which led the latter to enlist the services of the Ravagers to go after the Guardians.   

"[The Sovereign are] very pompous, and they're gold and they're easily offended, which we're also told early in this sequence, and that there's a very particular way you need to deal with them, and you need to speak with them and you need to be delicate, which is not easy for the Guardians, and certainly not easy [for] Rocket," shared Kevin Feige, as published on IGN.

Chris Pratt will return as Peter Quill aka Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket Racoon, including supporting characters like Karen Gillan as Nebula and Michael Rooker as Yondu. James Gunn will return to helm the film, which opens on May 5, 2017.