They're back for one more go... and they look better than ever.
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 will hit cinema screens here on May 5, with Chris Pratt back as inter-galactic force leader StarLord.
The final instalment of the Marvel blockbuster franchise is tipped to be the trilogy’s biggest earner, raking in £1billion at the box office – £300m more than the 2017 film.
Based on the superhero team fighting tyranny, who first featured in Marvel Comics back in 1969, Guardians has thrilled cinema audiences around the world, making it a bigger cult classic than The Avengers and Spider-Man.
Movie effects expert Yasmine ElGhamrawy says the secret lies in timeless tales coupled with latest technology. “Your heroes come to life in a way not possible before,” says Yasmin, who has worked on Ironman 3 and The Avengers.
“Technology is catching up with imagination, so you feel you’re stepping into the comic books. It’s cinema escapism at its best – two hours of fun and stunning visuals.”
The franchise has cemented 43-year-old Pratt as an elite action star, reported to be earning £22m for his final fling as Star-Lord Peter Quill.
But with Zoe Saldana , Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillan and Dave Bautista on board, he’s not carrying it by himself. Here we look at their back stories.
Chris Pratt
His life story could be a blockbuster movie script – going from a broke door-to-door salesman and stripper-for-hire to a movie megastar worth a cool £80m.
Chris Pratt was living in a tent on a Hawaii beach earning extra cash as a waiter when he got his big break.
He caught the eye of a female customer who turned out to be a Hollywood director – and the rest is history. Pratt, 43, is now Hollywood hot property, with big roles in the Jurassic World trilogy, The Terminal List and the Lego movies.
He’s currently starring in the world’s biggest movie Super Mario Bros. – another film well on its way to earning a billion.
But his success has come at a price. In 2018 he split from actress wife Anna Faris, 46, with whom he has a 10-year-old son, Jack.
Despite being at a career high, he says his life was off track and he felt “broken”.
But in a chance encounter at church he met his now wife Katherine Schwarzenegger, daughter of Tinseltown Terminator Arnold. They wed in June 2019 and have two daughters, Lyla Maria, two, and nine-month-old Eloise Christina. He loves hanging out with his superstar father-in-law. “He’s a great dude,” Pratt says. “We play chess a lot. I’ve never beat him.”
But hanging out with Schwarzenegger is the most “Hollywood” Pratt’s life gets – the family’s escape is his Washington State ranch where they raise goats and sheep. And, unlike some other stars, he puts family time before taking on more jobs or business opportunities.
“I’ve changed a lot,” he says. “I see peers of mine who are prolific actors and also icons and I don’t want that. I don’t want to build an empire.”
It is all a far cry from his days working as a waiter for the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co where he got his big break. Chris says: “I waited on a director who said, ‘Hey, you’re cute, you act?’ And I was like, ‘I totally act. You should put me in a movie’.
“So I got this part… it films in LA and I’ve got maybe 60 bucks to my name. I can’t go to LA. She said, ‘Sweetie, we’ll fly you there’ – and that was it. I never went back.”
Vin Diesel
The voice of Groot and Groot II in several Marvel superhero films, Diesel, 55, is one of the world’s top 10 grossing stars.
But as a New York nightclub bouncer back in the 90s, he struggled to get his acting ambitions taken seriously.
It was only when he wrote, starred in and directed the semi-autobiographical short film Multi-Facial, about a struggling multi-racial actor stuck in the audition process, that people started to take notice.
His talent was spotted by Steven Spielberg, who cast him in a small role in Saving Private Ryan.
Action-hero status was to follow with roles in the Fast and the Furious franchise.
He then earned the accolade of having his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Karen Gillan
Scots actress Gillan, 35, dropped out of drama school to land her first role at 18 in ITV crime drama Rebus.
The Inverness lass thought it would be her big break but it ended up a bit-part. In 2009, 6ft tall Gillan was pulling pints in a pub and working as a model when she landed the role that would make her famous – Doctor Who’s companion Amy Pond.
She says: “Being in Doctor Who completely changed my life. There’s no other show out there that brings the same level of interest and hype.”
That early taste of fame prepared her for life on the Hollywood A-list when she was cast as multi-talented Nebula in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie in May 2013.
Her career has since gone stratospheric, with roles in blockbusters Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Love and Thunder.
Zoe Saldana
Saldana has appeared in all three of the highest-grossing films of all time, Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water and Avengers: Endgame - a feat not achieved by anyone else.
Films she has starred in have taken more than £10bn at the box office and Time magazine named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world this year.
The 44-year-old star, who plays Gamora in Guardians, has three children with husband Marco Perego, an Italian artist, and the talented family are multilingual, speaking Spanish, Italian and English.
Dave Bautista
Retired wrestler Bautista is a six-time world wrestling champion who successfully moved from the rough and tough world of WWE to become the toast of Tinseltown.
Born in Washington DC, he grew up in poverty and was a broke nightclub bouncer before bodybuilding helped turn his life around.
The stars aligned for Bautista as he retired from wrestling just as superhero movies were dominating Hollywood, meaning there were plenty of opportunities for musclebound wrestlers. But far from heading to where the cash was and accepting just any script, Paul, 54, was picky.
He says: “Before I left WWE, Stone Cold Steve Austin pulled me aside and said, ‘You’re going to get offers for horrible scripts. The money will be tempting. Don’t get caught in that trap.’”
He took the advice, but his wrestling money was soon gone - he lost his house and was selling everything he owned while he honed his acting skills. It was a gamble that paid off both professionally and financially when he landed the role of Drax the Destroyer in Guardians.
Bradley Cooper
Guardian Rocket is played by BAFTA winner and nine-times Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper.
He is one of the world’s highest-paid actors, with his films taking more than £8bn at the box office.
His first TV role was a brief appearance in Sex and The City, but he got his big break with a supporting role in The Wedding Crashers before he was cast in The Hangover, which cemented his place as a Hollywood favourite.
Cooper, 48, directed and starred in A Star is Born opposite Lady Gaga. He spent four years on the project, including 18 months of vocal training, and the film was nominated for seven Oscars. It is a far cry from the early days of his career when he considered quitting show business altogether and struggled with alcohol abuse.
He has been sober since 2004, saying: “I realised I wasn’t going to live up to my potential, and that scared the hell out of me. I thought, ‘Wow, I’m actually gonna ruin my life.”
