It shouldn't come as any surprise that Guardians of the Galaxy is getting a sequel made.  After all, the film received quite a lot of praise from critics and viewers alike, and the original film promised that they would return.  Considering that we live in an age where franchises rule the box office, and that Marvel, one of the biggest franchise holders, would want another offering of these space-bound superheroes.  This is everything that is known about the Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 with its release date. 

CNET says that the director James Gunn, who is back for the Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, announced on Facebook that the official photography for the sequel has begun, and he "couldn't be more stoked." 

There is already an image from filming that shows all five of the main cast in shadow, who are all set to return for the sequel.  Rocket the Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) is there, along with Gamora (Zoe Saldana), and Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) is in front with this glowing red eyes.  Also, there is Drax (Dave Bautista) with a small Groot on his shoulder.  Vin Diesel will be back as everyone's favorite talking tree, and Karen Gillan will be back as Nebula, Michael Rooker is reprising his role as Yondu, and even Benicio Del Toro is back as the Collector.  A new member of the cast will be Pom Klementieff as Mantis, a martial arts master with green skin that is pulled directly from Marvel comics source material. 

Also new to the cast will be Kurt Russell, and the imdb page does not say who the veteran actor is playing.  Of course, rumors are flying that Russell will be Star-Lord aka Peter Quill's father, but in all honesty, that feels like an obvious plot twist that I wouldn't even call it a plot twist.  I would imagine if that were the case, the studio would just announce it shortly before the film is released.  In fact, Gunn said explicitly that "we'll have more surprises for you in the coming months." 

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 is coming on May 5, 2017.  After that, it is quite possible that the characters from Guardians of the Galaxy will be featured in the two new Avengers films.  Infinity War Part 1 is due out in 2018, and Infinity War Part 2 is due out in 2019. 

The Infinity War was a huge event in Marvel feature Thanos as he sought the Infinity stones to obtain power.  Considering that the Infinity Stones and Thanos have been introduced in both the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy films, it almost looks like Marvel's Cinematic Universe is setting itself up for a very big team-up. Hopefully, the audiences will be able to keep track of a large number of characters and all the actors won't crowd the screen.