After months of speculation about when fans will see the first footage from Guardians of the Galaxy, it has been confirmed that the first trailer will debut Tuesday, February 18 on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!, with a special introduction from star Chris Pratt. The trailer will debut in theaters on Friday, February 21. To get fans ready for this release, Marvel has released three new photos from their Phase Two adventure, featuring Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), along with their Milano spacecraft. Check out these photos, then read on for more details about this highly-anticipated movie from director James Gunn and Chris Pratt.

Guardians of the Galaxy is, of course, based on the Marvel comic books of the same name, which have gained a cult following of fans throughout the years. Director James Gunn compares the movie to someone's favorite indie band becoming popular all of the sudden, which causes fans to dislike them.

"All of a sudden, Arcade Fire becomes incredibly popular: 'I don't know if I like them that much anymore.' I'll happily deal with the cool people not thinking I'm cool anymore and making bigger movies!"

When the movie begins, these five heroes are all on separate paths. Star-Lord is piloting the Milano spacecraft, while in possession of a mysterious orb, and Gamora has ties to the villainous Thanos, who was revealed at the end of Marvel's The Avengers. They all meet in the space prison Kylin, where they proceed to break out together and go on a journey to Knowhere, a well-known alien hangout. They meet up with The Collector (Benicio Del Toro), while trying to evade villains Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) and Nebula (Karen Gillan), who both want Star-Lord's orb.

Chris Pratt talked about the epic scope of the movie, which would not work as a Broadway stage play.

"There's a whole lot to this movie - it's not a stage play. You couldn't make Guardians of the Galaxy the play and put it on Broadway. It really wouldn't work."

Despite all the sci-fi and superhero elements at play, James Gunn said that the movie is more about, "these characters, their emotions and their relationships." Chris Pratt also talked about the range of emotions he had to showcase in his performance

"Being stuck in space with no accountability makes for a strange combination of youthful vibrancy and cluelessness in a childlike man. He does some things that most people wouldn't get away with. But part of his arc is being willing to essentially sacrifice himself for the greater good of other people."

The actor also talked about subverting the comic book fans' expectations by giving them something fresh and new.

"They know what to expect at every turn. So that's why it's important now to do a comic-book movie that no one's ever seen before."