A new batch of concept art from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 reveals the designs for several major characters and some of the sequel's biggest action sequences. Writer/director James Gunn and the art department had plenty of fresh work to do on the sequel in terms of characters and settings, adding several significant new supporting characters to go along with the five heroes and others.

The Vol. 2 art team surely put plenty of hours into designing Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) and the home planet of the High Priestess and the Sovereign people. New faces like Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Taserface (Chris Sullivan) also presented them with some unique challenges. A fresh collection of concept art for the film has surfaced online, and it's a mix of early designs for characters both old and new.

The concept art recently popped up in a gallery on Zenfolio, revealing concepts for several of Vol. 2's most explosive action scenes and most important new characters. There are early concepts for Ayesha, Taserface, and Mantis, all of which look only slightly different from what ended up in the final movie. There's also a look at Drax (Dave Bautista) with his daggers, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) running from danger on Ego's home planet, and Nebula (Karen Gillan) sporting her new cybernetic arm. Check out the photos below:

This is the first significant concept art to find its way online since artist Andy Park posted a detailed design of Star-Lord and Gamora in their updated outfits for Vol. 2. Early designs for characters like Martinex and Krugarr, the adolescent Groot you see in a post-credits scene, and even Howard the Duck have also popped up recently. While these freshly released concepts are quite similar to how the characters ultimately looked in Vol. 2, the early designs for Ego released earlier this summer are strikingly different from how Kurt Russell ended up appearing, including one that made him less human and more organic.

These drawings show how close the art department came to creating the final looks for the new characters. The color palette in the Gamora concepts also turned out to be noticeably accurate as compared to the look and feel of Ego's home planet. The design for the "Abelisk" monster that the Guardians fight at the beginning of the movie is also impressively similar to what ended up in the final cut.

If anything, these early designs show how closely the art department works with the costume design, set design, and visual effects teams on blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The only concept that looked fairly far off from the finished version is Taserface, but that doesn't make the rest of the designs any less impressive.

Next: David Bowie Would Have Been One of the Original Guardians of the Galaxy

Source: Zenfolio

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