The Fan Carpet went out of this World at the Star-studded European Premiere of Marvel Studios’ GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2

Last night, the prestigious Eventim Apollo in London’s Hammersmith played host to the European Premiere of Marvel Studios’ GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 with Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff and Kurt Russell in attendance with the film’s Writer/ Director James Gunn and a whole host of attendees including Elizabeth Debicki who plays the Sovereign leader Ayesha in the film and YouTube favourite Connie Glynn aka Noodlerella!

Whilst The Fan Carpet’s Marc Jason Ali and Ellie Torrez were in attendance inside (more on that in a bit), our friend Russell Nelson from Red Carpet News TV was in attendance and interviewed the arrivals including returning cast member Michael Rooker who plays Yondu and new recruits Pom Klementieff who plays Mantis and the legend that is Kurt Russell who plays Ego.

Speaking about the evolution that Yondu goes through in the film, Michael Rooker said “Yeah there was quite a lot to be involved with, great stuff! He does evolve a lot there’s much more going on. You don’t necessarily know what but you know something’s up. I’m really happy that it doesn’t get completely totally explained with words. A lot of it you deal with just looking, it’s a lot of non-verbal stuff, camera moves and stuff like that which is kinda cool. Any yet when I get that fin back on it’s crazy man!”

Discussing the new fin, which is a deep cut from the Comics, Rooker added “The new head fin is one of my favourite things in the movie I love the new fin! I almost knocked myself out several times shooting the movie. You know it’s like 8 inches taller than me and it goes out two inches beyond my forehead too. It just took a little time to get used to.”

Addressing his relationship with the mischievous Baby Goot, Rooker said “Messing around with little baby Groot is tough. He’s a tough little cookie, you’ve got to watch him! He’s a little violent that little guy. He’s deceiving!”

Asked about being a part of the Guardians family, Rooker said “On and off camera these guys are my pals and it IS like a family. It’s been a blast, you know James Gunn must be our Daddy! he’s a really cool guy you know!”

When asked How it felt joining such a huge franchise, Pom Klementieff said “It was incredible especially for me coming from France, even though I lived in LA, it was a big Hollywood movie and a Marvel Movie. It was one of my dreams to be in Marv el movie and to have super powers so I was pretty excited about that. But you know it’s like joining a family. James Gunn is really amazing and you know the whole cast was really nice and down to earth and professional too. So I learnt a lot from them.”

Talking about her character of Mantis, Klementieff added “She arrives in the movie at the same time as Kurt Russell’s character Ego and she’s like a child because she grew up sort of on her own. She’s pretty powerful but she doesn’t really know it. Meeting the Guardians is sort of opening a new world to her and then she’s able to do things that she didn’t even know she was capable of doing.”

Discussing the themes of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 Klementieff was asked what the heart of the story is this time and she said “It talks about family, it talks about the relationship between a father and son, between sisters, and between new people who meet each other and become their friends and family in a way. It’s not just about blood related people, it’s about the people who you make family on your own.”

Addressing the relationship between her Mantis and Dave Bautista’s Drax, she added “It was great, he’s a gentleman and you know he’s really sweet. He’s big and if there’s a problem you know he can fight… Wooo! but he’s also just really sweet you know.”

Speaking to the legendary Kurt Russell about what appealed to him about the character and joining the sequel, he replied “When I got the script they do a lot of keeping thing’s close to the vest with Marvel stuff and with Guardians stuff. So he was actually referred to in the script as J’Son. After I read the script I remember thinking what a weak ass name for a great character so I was so hapy latr on to find out he had a much better name being Ego The Living Planet. That’s befitting this guy! And he’s a God so come on let’s have a moniker and yeah I thought things are coming together to fit very well with what I assumed James wanted to do for his movie.”

Addressing working with Chris Pratt, Russell said “It was great you know I’ve done some parts in the past that reminded him of the way he performs Peter Quill. So I understood why when Chris and James watched the movie and talked it over they said Kurt Russell would be the right guy to do this movie. That feels good, but what feel better is when you meet and go Yup this feels good!”

And Finally Russell spoke to the man that brought the Guardians of the Galaxy to the big screen, James Gunn, when asked if Vol 2 harder or easier than the first Guardians film, he said “Definitely the first one was a bigger challenge. The first one nobody knew who the character where and I didn’t know if people were going to think that the story that we were telling was too weird or unusual. I didn’t know if it was going to be too off-putting, I didn’t know if putting music in the film was going to be very strange. This time I knew there was an audience out there who loved the first movie waiting to see these characters and waiting to see what we came up with. That makes things a lot easier and a lot less scary frankly.”

Addressing how he settled on the character of Ego and how easy was it to cast Kurt Russell, Gunn said “I didn’t think immediately of Kurt but I thought of him after a while. I knew what the story was behind Peter Quill and his father, I came up with that before I even started shooting the first movie and it was kinda going through which character in the Marvel universe really fit those attributes. Ego was the one I came up with.”

Speaking about the heart of the story this time and what he hopes fans take away from Vol 2, Gunn answered “Well I do think that the first film was about Peter Quill and this one is about the group as a whole, so I think that’s part of it, but I think it’s just about battered relationships and damaged souls, it’s about people who have never been loved and who are trying to love and it’s a very difficult thing for them. I think that’s true whether it’s Peter Quill or Rocket or Gamora or Nebula, we get to see all those relationships play out in this movie and see where they go.”

We’re excited that you’re hopeful going to be back for the third movie did you have that in mind when making this one and were you crafting it based on where you ultimately want to take the franchise Gunn added “Well I’m definitely back for Vol 3, you don’t need to hope! You never know where you’re going to go though, so I tried to make the movie in a way that it could be just a story or that it could continue on. You Know I always kinda had an idea of what the three movies as a whole would be and that that would be the story of this group of the Guardians of the Galaxy. I think that telling the last part of that is going to be a whole lot of fun.”

Thanks for talking to us James and Thank you for Baby Groot!

As I mentioned above, The Fan Carpet’s Ellie Torrez and Marc Jason Ali attended the European Premiere, we were seated at 7pm and before the film started, DJ Seb Fountaine took to the decks to regale us with the hits from the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY soundtrack, with guest including YouTube sensation Connie aka Noodlerella and The Fan Carpet’s Danielle Murphy dancing in the aisles culminating in Edith Bowman inviting James Gunn to the stage who in turn invited Pom Klementieff, Kurt Russell, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, and Chris Pratt to stage to introduce the film with Gunn proclaiming that it was the best Premiere that he’d ever been to.

We’ll have a full review up soon, but all I will say is that GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 continues the promise of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, by giving us an off the wall, bonkers film with incredible heart and makes us fall in love again with Rocket and Baby Groot, it takes a special company to be able to do that, but Marvel managed it and I can’t wait to see GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 on Thursday in IMAX, the vibrant colours popped on the screen at the Apollo, just imagine how good it’ll look in IMAX!

Many, many thanks to Disney and the Freuds team for making this such a memorable night, we had a blast!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Film Page

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 OPENS IN CINEMAS AND IMAX ON APRIL 28