Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Go Behind the Scenes With the Ravagers

CBR

By Rob Cave

Published Apr 23, 2017

It turns out the Ravagers from Guardians of the Galaxy are every bit as raucous off-screen as they are on set.

In "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2," the Ravagers, Yondu's old gang of space pirates and interplanetary pillagers are a pretty rowdy bunch, and there's a lot of them.

If there's any question about that, we need only look at a video posted by writer/director James Gunn, who detailed the recruiting and training process for the background performers who brought the Ravagers to life on screen. The extras remained pretty raucous even when they weren't on set, as captured in the behind-the-scenes footage.

As Gunn wrote, "Over the years I've really come to value our background performers. Background actors (or extras) can make a scene great or kill it entirely. So when it came to casting the Ravagers extras on Vol. 2 -- who had a lot of important, multi-layered scenes - we went through a painstaking process to find the best ones."

"First we went through thousands of headshots to find the most interesting faces and looks," he continued. "From there we created a Ravager boot camp of a couple hundred people. We put them through the paces with a bunch of scenarios. And from that group we chose the Ravagers who were the most engaging, authentic, and enthusiastic. It all paid off because our Ravager scenes in the movie don't seem like it's a handful of paid actors and then a bunch of extras who are barely present - it seems like a large cohesive group of maniacal pirates who have been traveling the universe for decades."

The director thanked the Ravagers for their hard work and dedication, saying, "you made these days the most fun of the entire shoot. You're an amazing bunch of guys."

Opening May 5, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” stars Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Vin Diesel as Baby Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon, Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Elizabeth Debicki as Ayesha, Chris Sullivan as Taserface, Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Glenn Close as Irani Rael and Kurt Russell as Ego.