In May 2014, director James Gunn said that he had planned to introduce two major new characters in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, Mantis and Adam Warlock.[2][3] Talks had begun with an actor Gunn had in mind to portray Mantis,[4] while he had decided to remove Warlock due to the film "getting too busy".[3] Gunn added that Warlock was "one character too many and I didn't want to lose Mantis and Mantis was more organically part of the movie anyway."[2] Klementieff was cast in October 2015.[5]
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Mantis is portrayed as a new member of the Guardians with empathic powers who lives with Ego.[6][7] Executive producer Jonathan Schwartz said the character "has never really experienced social interaction", and learns about "social intricacies" from the other Guardians.[8] Klementieff added, "She was really lonely and by herself, so it's a completely new thing to meet these people and to discover new things", comparing this to a child making awkward mistakes in social situations. Mantis and Drax have an "interesting" relationship in the film due to both being "complete odd balls".[6]Steve Englehart, Mantis' co-creator, was disappointed with the character's portrayal, saying, "That character has nothing to do with Mantis ... I really don't know why you would take a character who is as distinctive as Mantis is and do a completely different character and still call her Mantis."[9]
Dave Bautista indicated that at one point Gunn wanted to do "a Drax and Mantis film" as a spinoff, but that the concept was not pursued by Marvel.[10] In September 2021, Gunn noted that for both Klementieff's Mantis and Karen Gillan's Nebula "their roles are both pretty huge" in the script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.[11] Mantis and Drax also play a major role in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, of which Klementieff said, "I get to be the weirdest I've ever been as Mantis".[12] Mantis also had a fight scene in the special,[13] which revealed that she had superhuman strength and fighting abilities not previously portrayed in the MCU.
Mantis is raised by the living planet Ego (later revealed to also be her father) as a pet, due to her ability to use her powers to help him rest. Mantis and Ego's human-form projection later encounter the Guardians of the Galaxy—Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, Groot, and Nebula—after the Guardians traveled to a nearby planet to escape the Sovereign, from whom Rocket had stolen Anulax batteries during a battle. Ego's projection reveals that Ego is Quill's father, and they travel to the planet, Ego. Along the way, Mantis demonstrates her ability to detect people's emotions and feelings by touch. When Quill, Gamora, and Drax reach Ego, Mantis struggles with whether to tell Drax about Ego's evil plans, and ultimately joins the Guardians in their fight against Ego.
In 2018, Mantis and the Guardians respond to a distress call and rescue Thor adrift in space. After the team splits up, she accompanies Quill, Gamora, and Drax to Knowhere to stop Thanos, but is neutralized by Thanos using the Reality Stone, enabling Thanos to take Gamora. Mantis then goes to Titan with Quill and Drax, where they team up with Tony Stark, Peter Parker, and Stephen Strange in another attempt to wrest the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos. Although Mantis is able to temporarily control Thanos, he breaks free of her control when Quill learns from Nebula that Gamora died and strikes him. Shortly after, Mantis falls victim to The Blip.[14]
In 2023, Mantis is restored to life and is brought via portal to Earth in upstate New York, where she participates in a battle against an alternate universe version of Thanos. Later, Mantis and her reunited teammates attend Stark's funeral, who had sacrificed his life to stop Thanos. They then pick Thor up from Norway and return to space.[15]
In 2024, Mantis and the Guardians, joined by Kraglin, embark on space adventures. They respond to a call in Indigarr and try to help the natives against the Booskans. She and Quill seek out Thor's help, who defeats the army quickly and is gifted two goats, who annoy her. After learning of several killings of gods by a god butcher, they split up from Thor to help out.
In 2025, the Guardians buy Knowhere from the Collector and gain a new member to the team, Cosmo. Mantis helps in refurbishing it following the attack it endured. Knowing how depressed Quill is due to losing his love, Mantis wants to give him a meaningful Christmas and makes plans with Drax to bring Kevin Bacon as a gift for Quill. Mantis pilots their new ship back to Earth and she and Drax land in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. They inadvertently make money as buskers posing for pictures on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and get drunk at a nightclub bar. A seller of star maps offers to tell them where to find Bacon's house, and Mantis uses her powers to take the map without paying and to take all the seller's money. They go to Bacon's house in Beverly Hills and capture him and steal Christmas decorations from a holiday store. Back on Knowhere, they hold a Christmas celebration and present Bacon to Quill. Later, Mantis reveals to Quill that Ego was also her father, making them half-siblings, which Quill says is the greatest Christmas gift ever.
After the Guardians rebuild Knowhere, they are attacked by Adam, and Rocket is seriously injured, leaving the Guardians unable to tend to his wounds due to a kill switch embedded in him. The team, including Mantis, resolve to travel to the Orgoscope, headquarters of the High Evolutionary's company Orgocorp, in the hopes of finding an override code. Mantis, Drax, and Nebula end up on the High Evolutionary's ship, where they discover hordes of imprisoned children being captured themselves, and placed in a chamber with Abilisks. Mantis is able to persuade the Abilisks to side with them, and the three escape the chamber before reuniting with the Guardians and overpowering the High Evolutionary's army. After defeating the High Evolutionary, the Guardians, in their current form, decide to disband upon returning to Knowhere, and Mantis embarks on a journey of self-discovery with the Abilisks.
In an alternate 2011, Mantis was among the numerous alien attendees of Thor's parties on Earth, until she and the attendees panicked when they were informed that Frigga was coming, and worked to clean up the mess on Earth.[16]
Powers and abilities
Mantis has the power to sense the feelings and emotions of others whom she touches, and to influence their thoughts or cause them to fall asleep. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 she was introduced as being powerful enough to put the self-described celestial Ego to sleep and was also shown to have superhuman durability, as she easily survived a huge fall landing on her feet and later just got knocked out when a flaming rock hit her in the head at full force. In Avengers: Infinity War, she was able to lull Thanos into a stupor, although she struggled to maintain this state.
In The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, she was able to instantly cause Kevin Bacon to cease resisting and voluntarily accompany herself and Drax to Knowhere, keeping him in that state for an extended period of time. She is also shown in the Holiday Special to have superhuman strength, agility, stamina, and fighting skills, as she fights and defeats multiple police officers at once, armed with only a giant holiday candy cane decoration, using a combination of martial arts and her ability to put people to sleep. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Mantis was also shown to be capable of erasing the memories of others, she was able to cause Drax to forget what he saw.
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