Pom Klementieff Will Play Mantis in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2
Yesterday, we learned that Pom Klementieff was cast in James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. There were no details on the character given at the time, but now thanks to Deadline, we do know who she'll be playing. According to the report, she will be taking on the role of Mantis.
Mantis was created by Steve Englehart and Don Heck, and she first appeared in Avengers #112 in 1973. Mantis is the half-Vietnamese, half-German daughter of the antihero Libra, and a martial arts expert with psychic abilities and ties to the alien Kree race. She also has a connection to the Avengers and Thanos in the comics. I'm not sure if those connections will be utilized in the MCU, but there's obviously a possibility. As far as her powers and abilities go, here's some information from Marvel:
"The powers she adapted from the Cotati enabled her to communicate telepathically with plants, survive in space, and transfer herself (and her son) from plant life to plant life across interstellar distances or interdimensionally. Once reborn, she could fire powerful energy blasts, form energy fields, communicate directly with cosmic beings such as Eternity and Death, and gained complete control of her personal energies as well as her physical form. Her mind, a human/plant hybrid, is largely immune to mental or metaphysical assault, and her physical durability is greatly enhanced. She can achieve a meditative state in which she is largely immune to physical, mental or spiritual harm. She also seems to have limited powers of flight, though it is possible these function only in the vacuum of space.
"Through training with the Priests of Pama, Mantis attained "complete control" over her body, achieving peak human agility, the ability to accelerate her recuperative powers through force of will, and an empathic nature enabling her to sense the emotions of others as "psychic vibrations." Her mastery of the Priests' martial arts, which focus on manipulation of nerve endings and pressure points, has enabled her to knock out beings as powerful as Thor."
She's going to fit right in with the rest of the team, and it makes complete sense that Gunn would want to include her the next chapter of the story. It sounds like she will be a major player in the sequel. There were a few people in the comment section of the previous casting post who called Mantis as the character that Klementieff would play, so major props to them for figuring it out.