Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movie probably seems like a pretty weird concept to a lot of folks unfamiliar with the comics source material, so Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige is here to offer a primer.

Speaking with Empire magazine, Feige said the Guardians are "an unlikely band" brought together by "pure circumstance." He went on to describe each character. You can catch all his descriptions after the jump.

Rocket Raccoon (rumored to be voiced by Bradley Cooper): "[He] has been genetically and mechanically altered, he’s an experiment from one part of the galaxy."

Groot (rumored to be voiced by Vin Diesel): "A species that happens to look like trees look, and is quite communicative if you can understand the different inflections in the way he says, 'I am Groot.'"

Star-Lord (Chris Pratt): "Peter Quill left Earth in the mid ’80s, but when we meet back up with him he’s very much a citizen of the universe."

Drax (Dave Bautista): "[He] has one goal and one goal only, which is to kill Ronan because of a past tragedy."

Gamora (Zoe Saldana): "When we meet Gamora, she’s a bad guy working with Ronan and Nebula and Korath, and by extension for Thanos. Gamora doesn’t necessarily like doing that anymore, and tries to find a new path for herself. But she has a reputation as the deadliest woman in the galaxy that people aren’t greeting her with open arms."

Feige adds that Ronan the Accuser, played by Lee Pace, is definitely the "main bad guy" of the movie with "Thanos lurking above it all." There's a lot more of Thanos in the movie than fans got in The Avengers, he said.

The James Gunn-directed film opens August 1, 2014.

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