When Marvel first unveiled their Guardians of the Galaxy movie, it asked the question we all were thinking ‘Who are these A-holes?”. Initially making light of this very strange and otherworldly team, the second trailer started to place a level of seriousness and weight upon this new film and its story. Now with less than two months until its release, Marvel’s latest trailer not only brings these two very different aspects together; but also ties this film to the larger Marvel Universe we’ve come to love.

Connections To The Marvel Universe:

When this trailer first opens, it reminds us that this film comes from the same people that brought us Ironman, Captain America and Thor. Although this isn’t the only reference Marvel has given to their other properties. In fact, the majority of this trailer is meant to incite that Marvel-feel we’ve seen in recent years. This trailer doesn’t begin is space or with a talking raccoon; but rather with a frightened little kid on Earth.

Right off the bat, the soundtrack for this trailer seems eerily familiar to Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier. As the trailer progresses, it gives us the plot of basically every Phase 1 Marvel origin movie: ‘a person(s) who has to make a choice once he/she/they finds themselves in the midst of something bigger’. Tony Stark realized the error of his weapon making, Thor learned to be selfless and fight for others, and Captain America saved the world in WWII only to wake up 70 years later in a strange new time still in need of saving. Each found themselves facing dire threats that needed to be handled; and the Guardians will experience the same journey.

“We will not stand by as evil wipes out billions of innocent lives”

Gamora Steps Up:

A noticeable new addition to this trailer is that we finally get to see Zoe Saldana step up as Gamora. Sure we saw little glimpses of her fighting or bare back in past trailers; but this time we actually get to hear her speak and see her mannerisms. On a team full of hot-heads and maniacs, Gamora seems like the most calm and composed of the group.

This is also the first time that we hear her called ‘a murderer’. Yes, we knew she was an assassin from past trailers, but ‘murderer’ has a different connotation. Maybe it’s because of the Assassins Creed franchise; but assassin can sometimes – rarely – have a connotation of ‘it had to be done’. On the other hand, ‘murderer’ always places a level of atrocity on the act and makes the victims purely that – innocent victims. Hearing Gamora called a ‘murderer’ rather than an ‘assassin’ absolutely places her in a different light.

Though as I said before, when she speaks she seems the most rational and calm. She doesn’t sound like a heartless killing machine. Either Gamora is excellent at hiding her slaughter-happy side, or we have the makings of a very complex character that is trying to make up for the awful things she’s done.

The Rocket We’ve Been Waiting For:

When we first saw Rocket Raccoon spit at the space cops with attitude, we were happy. When we later saw him pick up some firepower, we were excited. When we finally saw him ‘fix’ himself in the last trailer, we knew this could be the Rocket we were waiting for; but we still hadn’t seen any banter. Rocket Raccoon is basically the Tony Stark of one-liners in the Guardians universe, which is why fans can’t wait to see him and Tony Stark together in Avengers 3.

Well now we have all of that and more as we finally get to see Rocket’s sarcasm, snark and one-liners. From laughing at Quill’s “plan” to looking like a little kid who just his toy taken away from him in the post trailer scene, Bradley Cooper completely owns it as Rocket Raccoon.

Even though Guardians of the Galaxy is a relatively unknown title to most people, Marvel has done an awesome job with making these trailers memorable and expand upon each other. We haven’t even seen the movie yet and this already looks like a trailer with old friends. It’s going to be amazing seeing how this sets up for Avengers 3; but even more amazing how these 5 people come together. This basically seems like the Friends of Superhero movies – if Rocket was the fusion of Joey and Chandler.

Guardians of the Galaxy blasts off into theaters August 1^st.