Guardians Of The Galaxy Easter Eggs: Over 50 Trivia, References, Callbacks, Cameos And More

Guardians of the Galaxy might be Marvel's most elaborate film to date when it comes to easter eggs. I've watched the film twice now and have noticed a ton of inside jokes, references to characters from the comic books, 1980's callbacks and more.I attempted to compile the most complete listing of Guardians of the Galaxy easter eggs, including (possible spoilers teased in the following):

Take a look at /Film's Guardians of the Galaxy easter egg list after the jump.

The following article contains spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy, contains spoilers for some of the previous Marvel Studios films, and sometimes talks about the comic book origins of characters and storylines which could hint at the future direction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Be aware.

Updated: Nova concept art, An image of the Dark Elf in The Collector's Museum, An image of Nathan Fillion's character, Howard the Duck information and photo, Dancing Groot video, Spartoi concept art, James Gunn teases Peter Quill's father, Broker's inclusion.

Laura Haddock plays Peter Quill's terminally ill mother Meredith Quill. But you might also recognize Haddock from a previous Marvel Studios movie. Haddock played a brief role as a woman seeking Captain America's autograph in Captain America: The First Avenger. You can see her appearance about 2 minutes and 10 seconds into the following clip:

Is it possible that Peter Quill's mother was also in attendance at Steve Rogers' 1940 show appearance? The ages make this rather unlikely, but hey, you never know. Meredith Quill did encounter Peter's father, an alien from another galaxy — so its possible their journey together could have displaced time. However, its very unlikely the Marvel films will explore this.

The character Meredith Quill first appeared in Marvel Preview #4 – The Starlord: Who he is and how he came to be, and has had 15 appearances in the history of Marvel comics.

In the movie Starlord's father is teased in a couple different ways. In the opening of the film, an ill Meredith Quill tells Peter that his father was an angel made entirely of light. After the final battle of the film, the Nova Corps reveal to Peter that they have found something strange when they scanned him. Quill says, "You mean I'm not Terran?" and Nova Prime responds that his mom is human, but that his father is something incredibly ancient that hasn't been seen before. Gamora theorizes that his mysterious biology might be why he was able to hold the Infinity Stone for so long without being destroyed. And a quick scene with Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker) reveals that he was originally hired to abduct 11-year-old Quill to deliver the boy to his "jerk" father, which he decided against.

So who is Peter Quill's father? Here is some information on the comic book backstory of the character courtesy of the ComicVine database:

Once there was a man called Prince Jason of Spartoi, and he was wrongly accused of being a traitor by his father. This action caused Jason to run away. When war broke out Jason was asked to come back home. But on the way home Jason's ship converter blew out. He then had to make a crash landing in the Earth's Colorado Mountains. A woman named Meredith Quill helped him out of the ship. She would get him back on his feet and help rebuild his ship. He fell in love with her and conceived a child. In order to return to the war he had to leave Meredith behind so she wouldn't get hurt. Jason locked her memories so that she would be spared the pain he felt. ... When the war against Spartoi and Ariguan had been in Spartoi's favor, Jason asked his uncle Gareth to bring his family to him. But, instead Gareth put a hit on the Quill family. When Peter was eleven he saw men come in and kill his mother. The men left not knowing Peter was there. Peter swore that he would kill those men. Gareth had told Jason that his family had died during birth. Peter with much hope ran away from his orphanage to go to a greater destiny.

Now of course, the comic book storyline doesn't play out with 11-year-old Peter escaping after aliens killed his mother.  The fiery symbol which Star-Lord wears in the movie is actually the insignia of his father's race, the Spartoi. Screenwriter Nicole Pearlman's original draft of Guardians of the Galaxy involved Quill finding out about his father, and visiting the king on his planet. You can read more about that and even see a bunch of concept art created by Marvel for the abandoned Spartoi sequences, here.

When it was revealed Nathan Fillion has a small part in Guardians, some fans speculated that he may be playing Jason of Spartoi. He does not, but more on that later.

Update: Director James Gunn has now gone on record to say that Peter Quill's father will "definitely not" be the character who was in the comics.

That's been part of the plan since the beginning, that's something I had to work out before we shot the screenplay. We wanted to make sure Yondu's place in everything made sense and it does, so it's all very specific stuff.

Gunn says that only four people know who Star-Lord's father is: Kevin Feige, Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn.

After the opening of the film, we see grown up Star-Lord on the planet of Morag. Peter Quill has landed on the deserted wasteland planet in hopes of stealing a treasure hidden inside the temple ruins, lost for many centuries. The planet doesn't appear in the Marvel comics but the name Morag is a tribute to the first leader of the Kree.

The prison where the Guardians of the Galaxy come together is called The Kyln. In the comics, The Kyln looks very different, a series of spherical units located next to the galactic barrier known as the Crunch. The Kyln was primarily used as a power plant for neighboring worlds but also serves as an "inescapable, intergalactic prison known to hold very powerful prisoners inside." Peter Quill even did time at the comic book version of The Kyln.

Straight out of the Marvel comics is Knowhere — the mining colony located on the edge of the universe in the decapitated head of a long-dead Celestial being. In the comics, Knowhere becomes the base of operations for The Guardians of the Galaxy.

Guardians of the Galaxy introduces us to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's fourth Infinity gem. The Orb which Peter Quill steals from the Morag temple ruins contains the Power Gem (confirmed by Gunn). Star-Lord himself describes the orb as possessing "a real Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon vibe". So there are only two (or three) more Infinity Gems not introduced on screen (as far as we know).

Everyone is expecting Avengers 3 to be about Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet storyline. The classic comic book story was released as a six-issue comic book limited series in 1991. Written by Jim Starlin and penciled by George Pérez and Ron Lim, the story involved Thanos gaining control of the six Infinity Gems, which he mounted on his left glove to form the Infinity Gauntlet.

Each Gem grants its bearer complete mastery over one aspect of the multiverse: Time, Space, Mind, Soul, Reality, and Power. Now all-powerful and desperate to win the affections of Death, Thanos decides to offer the entity a gift of love by completing a task she had given him, erasing half the sentient life in the universe (including most of the X-Men, Daredevil, and the Fantastic Four),quite literally with a snap of his fingers. The surviving heroes on Earth band together—guided by the newly resurrected Adam Warlock—to battle Thanos.

In the current Marvel Cinematic Universe, Loki's staff is with Baron von Strucker on Earth (speculated by some fans to be an infinity gem, while other dispute that theory), the Tesseract is on Asgard with Thor (or someone), the Aether is with The Collector on Nowhere and the Orb is on Xandar protected by the Nova Corps.

The Infinity Gauntlet has already appeared on screen in a Marvel Studios film, however very briefly. The infamous glove could be seen in the background of Odin's treasure room during the attack by Frost Giants in Thor, seen above.

There are a ton of Marvel comic book and movie references to be found inside the containers in The Collector's museum. Director James Gunn told us in July:

There's a lot of stuff in the Collector's Museum. And for me, it was mostly just really fun. As a Marvel fan, giving the actual fans something that they can freeze frame on their Blu-Ray at home and just kind of pick out everything that's in there. So there are, I mean, seriously all those boxes have something interesting in them, so it's pretty fun.

Marvel head Kevin Feige explained to us how they chose which easter eggs to hide:

It's the scene that was, you know, that we always wanted to do. The Collector. And we wanted to use him the way we use him in there. But as it came time to fill all those things, it became crazy, crazy potential.

Here are a few that have been confirmed:

Cosmo the Space Dog: A former test animal of the Soviet Space Program, Cosmo was launched into Earth's orbit as part of an experiment but he drifted off into space, where he became mutated and gained powers of a telepathy and telekinesis. He came to serve as Knowhere's security chief, and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. In the movie, Cosmo the Space Dog (played by Fred the Dog) escapes the destruction of the Collector's Museum and is likely roaming around Knowhere. The end credits scene features Cosmo licking the face of The Collector before he runs off.  So if the Guardians set up shop in the celestial head, they could eventually adopt a new four legged member of the crew.Howard the Duck: Blink and you'll miss him during the movie — Howard The Duck can be seen sitting in a cage hanging from the ceiling of The Collector's museum. But if you stick around until the end of the credits you will get to see and hear the forgotten Marvel character up close talking to the Collector in his destroyed lab.

Director James Gunn reveals how the end of credits stinger happened when talking to Empire Magazine:

"I think it was some combination of me and the editor Fred Raskin who said, 'Let's put Howard The Duck in there. What if The Collector looks over and sees Howard The Duck sitting there?' And I wrote down the line, 'Whaddya let it lick you like that for? Gross.' Fred and I thought it was hilarious, but we weren't sure that (Head of Marvel Studios) Kevin Feige would go for it. But we told Kevin and Kevin couldn't stop laughing, so that's how it came about."

But could Marvel be setting up a Howard the Duck movie? Gunn dismisses it, but admits anything is possible:

"I'll be honest with you, I was just talking about it with my assistant right now," laughs Gunn. "It's possible Howard could reappear as more of a character in the Marvel Universe. But if people think that's going to lead to a Howard The Duck movie, that's probably not going to happen in the next four years. Who knows after that?"

Marvel head Kevin Feige talked briefly to CBR about the cameo:

[Laughs] I think it would be fun to lay claim to Howard and to remind people that he's more than just a pseudonym for film failure. And that he is a Marvel character. That would be fun. And no legal wrangling over pants with Disney this time! No. I wasn't even aware of all that stuff until recently!

Ain't It Cool News was able to confirm that Seth Green was the voice of Howard the Duck in the post-credits stinger. Howard The Duck was actually the first Marvel character to have a theatrical feature film. The infamous 1986 film was produced by George Lucas. Also of Note: Marvel recently made a bunch of the Howard the Duck comics available online.A Dark Elf: The Collector's assistant is seen cleaning the cage of a dark elf, an ancient race believed to be completely eradicated by the Asgardians many years ago. We saw the Dark Elfs in Thor: The Dark World. Is it possible that Sif and Volstagg dropped him off while they were delivering the Aether? Gunn has revealed that the dark elf is played by Doug Robson, one of our stunt guys.A Chitauri Soldier: A Chitauri soldier is seen in one of the cages. You remember the Chitauri as the alien invaders who attacked earth in the battle of New York in The Avengers. There is no indication if this Chitauri was involved in the Earth battle or if he was acquired elsewhere in the galaxy.The Tesseract aka The Cosmic Cube: You may remember that in the credits scene of Thor: The Dark World, Sif and Volstagg visit The Collector and hand him the Aether, because they don't feel comfortable having two infinity stones so close together on Asgard. Of course, the reveal was that The Tesseract/Cosmic Cube is the other infinity stone, for now "safe" in the Asgardian safe. So, while the Tesseract isn't actually in The Collector's museum, in Guardians of the Galaxy a holographic image of it can be seen when the Collector is giving Peter Quill and Gamora his lesson on the history of the Infinity Stones, along with the Aether (which is in the museum somewhere).

One of the Collector's treasures, more visible in the Thor: The Dark World end credits sequence (screencaped above), shows a container with a large cocoon. Fans  noticed that the strange cacoon looks like the cocoon from the comics which housed Adam Warlock, seen below:

Director James Gunn has since confirmed that it is Adam Warlock's cocoon.

Adam Warlock made his Marvel comics debut in Fantastic Four #66 (published September 1967) in cocoon form. Warlock is an artificially created being designed by researchers at a complex known as the "Beehive". One of his special abilities allows him to spin a regenerative cocoon around him at will in a matter of seconds. When questioned about the possibility of a Nova or Adam Warlock solo films, Marvel head Kevin told MoviePilot that they could appear in the sequel:

I think if Guardians works the way we certainly hope it works, that would probably be the franchise to meet a lot of those people. That would be our entrance into numerous other cosmic folk. If we spin those out into individual movies, that's a question for down the line. But I think we would see those kinds of characters in a future Guardians movie.

So Adam Warlock also likely escaped the destruction of the Collector's musuem, and if the Marvel comic books are used for source material, Warlock could be around for the already mentioned Infinity Gauntlet storyline the whole cosmic second and third phases seems to be leading up to.

Beta-Ray Bill? A bunch of comic book fans believe they have spotted Beta-Ray Bill in the pan shot of The Collector's Museum. Described as "some kind of brownish figure with a red cape behind glass" to the right of the Collector. We can't confirm this appearance, although many people believe they saw the horse-headed alien in the museum. Created by writer-artist Walt Simonson, Beta Ray Bill first appeared in Thor #337 (published November 1983). He belongs to an alien belonging to a race known as the Korbinites, and is the first "being outside of the Marvel Universe's Norse pantheon to be deemed worthy enough to wield Thor's hammer, Mjolnir."Space Slug From Slither: And there are even some fun references from outside of the Marvel universe hidden in this scene, including a space slug from James Gunn's horror film Slither, confirmed by Kevin Feige.

The Collector's Museum is left in ruins at the conclusion of Guardians of the Galaxy, but director James Gunn hints that we might see more of that character and his many treasures in future Marvel films like the announced 2017 sequel.

"I will say that is probably not the Collector's only museum," he said. "I think he probably has other spaces in which he keeps his incredibly vast selection. That's just his Knowhere wing [in the movie]."

Moving on to...

Guardians of the Galaxy features many cameo appearances by James Gunn's friends and colleagues. Lets take a look at a few of the appearances we know about:

You might have noticed writer/director/screenwriter Lloyd Kaufman in one scene. The co-founder of the Troma Entertainment and director of Toxic Avenger helped give Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn his start in Hollywood. Gunn was a writer, associate director and executive in charge of production on Troma's 1996 film Tromeo and Juliet. Kaufman has had cameos in Gunn's other films, and Gunn has had cameos in Kaufman's directorial efforts. In Guardians, Kaufman plays a yellow-suited prisoner yelling from one of the Klyn platforms. Above is a behind the scenes photo of Kaufman in costume.

Rob Zombie voiced the Ravager navigation computer system. Zombie is a long-time personal friend of director James Gunn, and has appeared in a bunch of his films – He played the voice of a doctor on the phone with Elizabeth Banks in Slither and played God in Super. Gunn has said "I think I'll probably just have Rob play a voice role in every single one of my movies."

Nathan Fillion makes a very quick cameo in the Klyn as the big blue alien inmate that gets lifted up by his nostrils and taken out by Groot.

Seth voiced Howard The Duck in the post-credits stinger.

James Gunn appears somewhere as a maskless Sakaaran.

James Gunn's brother Sean Gunn appears in the film as both computer generated characters and a live-action role (you can read about his CG roles on the next page). His live-action performance was as Kraglin, Yondu Udonta's (Michael Rooker) sidekick lackey and the actor is probably best known for a starring role on Gilmore Girls. You can see a screenshot of him above.

Stan Lee has appeared in many of the Marvel comic book adaptations, usually movied based on characters he helped create. Here is a montage of all of his appearances:

It wouldn't be a Marvel film without an appearance from famed comic book creator and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee. Though Lee is not directly responsible for the creation of the Guardians of the Galaxy in the same way he was involved in the origins of so many other Marvel characters, he is credited with creating Groot alongside Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. You can see Lee standing next to an attractive young woman while Rocket Raccoon searches and makes fun of the crowd using his  digital binocular tablet device on the planet of Xandar.

James Gunn's dog Dr Wesley Von Spears makes a brief cameo appearance in the film. James has confirmed that Wesley can be seen in as the holographic dog with the little girl on Morag near the beginning of the movie. Gunn has also taken photos of his dog on every set of Guardians of the Galaxy, some of the photos he's posted on Instagram and Twitter like the image above of Wesley on Ronan's throne aboard the Dark Aster.

James Gunn's brother Sean Gunn played both Rocket Raccoon and Thanos on set, providing "the movements and behavior" of the characters during the filming. He wasn't just a stand-in, but also provided improv during the scenes. James says his favorite line of the movie is probably "A bunch of jackasses standing in a circle" spoken by Rocket, an improv contributed during filming by his brother.

Josh Brolin plays Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy, and is expected to make more appearances in future Marvel Studios films. The character first appeared on screen in the end credits stinger for The Avengers, but at that time unknown actor Damion Poitier played the infamous part. If you're interested about that history, read BlackFilm's interview with Poitier.

While Sean Gunn played the character on set, Bradley Cooper voiced Rocket Raccoon during post production. When I talked to director James Gunn on set, he explained why Cooper was chosen for the role:

They tried to meet with Nathan Fillion, they tried to meet with a lot of different people. I think that you can see that in Bradley Cooper as much as anyone in the world. When we were looking for Rocket, it was hard because Rocket to me is really the heart of the movie. He's this tortured little beast who's completely alone in the world and has been torn apart and put back together and turned into this little thing—yet he's still really funny. You need somebody who can do both sides of that, and it was really very, very difficult to find. I think Rocket's voice is a little bit like mine in some way. He speaks very quickly, he's got a little city in him and that's something that Bradley Cooper has. To be completely frank, we auditioned a lot of actors for the role and we auditioned a lot of voice actors for the role, and we were completely 100% willing to go with somebody that was a no-name. A no-name's a rude term, but somebody who was not a famous person. The truth is, the voice actors usually seem too cartoony and seemed like somebody out of a Pixar movie. The actors, it was hard to get just the voice right. Bradley is really the guy. He is the guy, he's Rocket. There is a great feeling as I've been making this movie, with myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f5CM2P3ILM

Director James Gunn has also revealed that he is the person behind the dancing Groot tree seen in the pre-credits sequence.

"Little spoiler for the audience, that tree dancing is me. I'm not motion-captured, but I'm motion-referenced and that is 100% me dancing... Honestly, that [scene] was supposed to be either mid-credits or end-credits, but when we showed it to the test audience, they loved it so much! We were like 'We don't want people walking out and missing this this,' so we put it right there after the 'Guardians of the Galaxy Will Return' thing."

Peter Quill is abducted in the later 1980's and the character surrounds himself with relics from that era of Terran popculture. But some of the references are less obvious than the stickers and figures he uses to decorate his spaceship, seen above.

For instance, director James Gunn has confirmed that Star-Lord's spaceship is named the Milano after his childhood crush on television star Alyssa Milano (Who's The Boss).

Peter Quill's Sony TPS-L2Walkman was introduced in the 1980s childhood-set Earth opening of the film. The piece of 1980's technology set off a revolution in music much the same way as the introduction of the iPod decades later. The prop department had a hard time finding good quality Sony TPS-L2Walkmans for the film. The production bought the only 16 of this specific Sony Walkman that were listed on eBay over a 6 month period, and only 3 of the 16 actually worked. (Gunn told us they are now in the Marvel archives waiting for part two).

Quill refers to Kevin Bacon as a great hero on his planet, telling Gamora the story of the 1984 film Footloose:

Really? Well, on my planet, there's a legend about people like you. It's called Footloose. And in it, a great hero, named Kevin Bacon, teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that dancing, well, it's the greatest thing there is.

The parody art above is the cover of Backstory Magazine this month. After seeing Guardians of the Galaxy, Kevin Bacon tweeted the following:

Hey @JamesGunn Just out of #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy it's nothing short of #Super IMHO

— Kevin Bacon (@kevinbacon) August 2, 2014

Peter Quill mentions that John Stamos was a legendary outlaw from where he's from. The year before Quill was abducted, a show began airing on television called Full House wich featured John Stamos as "Uncle Jesse", the Tanner's cool Rock & Roll uncle who drove a motorcycle and played guitar. After seeing the film, John Stamos tweeted:

Our friends at Screenrant noticed the following two references to books:

Near the end of the credits, a line on screen reads "No raccoons or tree creatures were harmed in the making of this film."

In The Avengers, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) tells Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) to give herself "...12% of the credit" for creating Stark Tower. Pepper is insulted by the absurdly low number, and later throws the number back at Tony saying that she was "having 12% of a moment". James Gunn featured a throwback to Joss Whedon's 12% joke in Guardians of the Galaxy. When Star-Lord announces his plan to the rest of the team in preparation for the third act battle, Rocket Raccon (Bradley Cooper) and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) try to explains that 12% isn't a plan is "barely a concept."

Joss Whedon had some involvement in the writing process for Guardians – James Gunn worked with him to mold the script. Everyone loved Gunn's original script... except for Joss Whedon, who said he liked it but that it was too conventional and "it needed more James Gunn." So Gunn took another pass and really went for it.

While I was visiting the set of Guardians of the Galaxy in September 2013, director James Gunn revealed that his movie would feature the most Marvel Universe characters of any of the Marvel Studios films released thus far:

I actually have to clear everything with legal. We put in little things like graffiti on the walls and stuff like that. There's a ton, a ton of characters from the comics in this movie, in little tiny roles. But we have to clear everything with legal because once I use their name then I'm screwed in that scene or whatever. We have just tons of reference to you know Marvel Cosmic throughout the movie. And I'm certain probably the most Marvel comics characters ever in one movie. Oh, without a doubt. I would imagine times four, really. If you think about The Avengers, there was a few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and then all of the Avengers and then be kinda done. With us, we have—almost every little character is named after somebody in the comics. Some of them are far stretches from what they were in the comics. But we try to keep those little things in there for the fans and they can go and they can look them up and see who they are in the Marvel wiki page and stuff like that. But there's a lot of characters.

So lets take a look at some of the characters from the Marvel comics that you might have missed.

After escaping Morag, Peter encounters a woman that he forgot he left on his spaceship. The female character played by Melia Kreiling is named Bereet, a name which comic book readers may recognize.

Bereet was a female Krylorian techno-artist who used her alien technology to produce films concerning fictional adventures of herself and the Hulk.

Bereet became involved with the Hulk on Earth after the big green monster gained Bruce Banner's intelligence. Below is a photo posted by Gunn from the set:

Yondu Udonta (Michael Rooker) is almost nothing like the comic book version of the character. The comic book version was a game hunter/archer from the Zatoan tribe native to Centauri IV. Yondu is notable as being a founding member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, which came together after an escape from a Badoon prison. While the character in the movie is much different than the character seen in the comics, they did adapt Yondu's expert archery skills into a superpower which allowed the character to control a magical arrow with the sound of a whistle.

Ronan hired a bunch of troops to work for him. When I was on set, I saw concept art on the walls calling them "Badoon troops." Like the pieces above which have been released online, which you can read more about here. The Badoon are a reptilian alien species from the comics who have a lot of history with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Unfortunately 20th Century Fox owns the rights to the Badoon because they first appeared in Silver Surfer Volume 1 Issue #2. The Badoon were replaced them with the Sakaarans, another alien race from Marvel comics. Here is what they looked like in the film:

The species is split into two ethnic groups such as the red skin Sakaaran Imperials and the grey skin Shadow People. The red skins are the ruling class whilst the grey skins live as nomadic warriors or in small villages around the planet.

The Sakaaran troops wear creepy faceless masks made of an organic-looking shell material, which is also used to create their weapons and ships. Without a mask, the Sakaaran look like men, if the front of a man's face was ripped off from the roof of his nose to his chin. The Sakaaran serve a major role in the Planet Hulk storyline, so if the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings that story to the big screen (something thats been rumored for some time), some of the players will already have been established.

Ophelia Lovibond plays The Collector's pink-ish colored tortured alien assistant, but her relationship with the collector might be a lot more complicated than we're led to believe. Her official credit lists Lovibond as Carina so its possible she is playing Carina Walters, the daughter of the Collector and future wife of Michael Korvac (the villain known as The Enemy).

Peter Serafinowicz plays Denarian Saal. We don't know the character's full name as Denarian is his Nova rank. In the comics, Garthan Saal was a member of the Nova Corps, was one of the few Xandarians who survived the destruction of Xandar at the hands of Nebula. Saal became the original Supernova.

John C. Reilly plays Rhomann Dey. In the comic books, the character was the leader of Xandar's Nova Corps and he was one of the few survivors after Warlord Zorr devastated the planet. The attack killed most of the population of Xandar, including Dey's wife and children. The ending montage showing Dey embrace his family might also be an inside reference to this comic book storyline.

Here is another piece of Nova concept art by artist Justin Sweet (see a bunch of his early VERY DIFFERENT character designs here):

We saw the Nova Corps. in the film but we did not see Nova proper, despite a plan once being in place to feature him in the movie. Above you can see a piece of concept art created for Guardians of the Galaxy showing what the movie version of Nova may have looked like. Read more about that here. Generally Nova is a uniformed human man, Richard Rider, who is buffed up by power and authority. He's somewhere between a galactic cop superstar and Xandar's own Captain America. Now we've got Nova concept art, detailing one ideas for his on-screen incarnation.

Another Marvel character that appears in the film is Broker, played by Christopher Fairbank. Director James Gunn explains the inclusion of the character:

Broker is another small character from the comics (debuting in Force Works #15) I peppered in for Marvel fans, and I couldn't hope for a better actor than Chris. A true professional with a long list of credits, Chris was in the pocket on every single take, bringing humanity to what could seem initially like a simplistic character. He's a favorite of mine and of Kevin Feige's.

In the film, Peter Quill notices Rocket Raccoon's back is scarred and features all sorts of weird implants. In a later scene, a drunk Rocket yells about being torn apart and being genetically experimented on. All of this is part of the character's backstory, which also appears in the comic books. Rocket was one of many animals that were genetically manipulated to become bipedal caretakers for the mentally ill on the planet Halfworld in the Keystone Quadrant. Rocket became the Halfworld's chief law officer ("ranger"), protecting the colony against threats from the outside galaxy. Rocket left the abandoned colony with his first mate Wal Russ (a talking walrus).

So what about the future of Guardians of the Galaxy? What can we expect to see in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, due out July 28th 2017? Click here to find out EVERYTHING we know about Guardians of the Galaxy 2!

We have used a lot of sources to collect the information in this post. I have tried to link all of them when appropriate. Here are a few websites that provided more than one piece of information used in this piece:  StitchKingdom, Reddit, wikipedia and bamsmackpow. Also Mr Sunday movies put together a video detailing many of the Guardians of the Galaxy easter eggs, watch that below: