Trivia: Stan Lee makes his customary appearance when Rocket Raccoon is sweeping the plaza for likely targets - he is seen chatting up a young lady. (00:16:00)
Trivia: The planet the orb is found on is called Morag. In the comics Morag is the first leader of the Kree, whose actions started the eon long Kree/Skrull war.
Trivia: When the Guardians are devising a plan to take the orb from Ronan, Quill claims to have "12%" of a plan. This is the same percentage of credit that Tony Stark was willing to concede to Pepper for the creation of Stark Tower in The Avengers.
Trivia: Among Tivan's collection of species is a Chitauri soldier from the Avengers, and a Dark Elf from Thor: The Dark World.
Trivia: Laura Haddock, who plays Peter Quill's mother, had a small part in Captain America: The First Avenger, as a girl who asks for an autograph from Steve Rogers.
Trivia: The dog that licks The Collector in the end credits scene is called Cosmo the Spacedog. Cosmo is actually a telepathic dog created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, and appeared in the Marvel comics. (02:00:05)
Trivia: This isn't the first time Howard the duck has ended up in The Collectors exhibit, he can be seen in an episode of Hulk and the Agents of SMASH. He makes a cameo appearance in one of the pods of The Collector who admires the "ultra rare hero", stating he's in mint condition.
Trivia: There are two scenes after the movie finishes. The first one is of a young Groot dancing, with Drax trying to catch him out. The second scene comes right at the very end - Howard the Duck makes a cameo appearance with The Collector. Howard can also be seen faintly in the background of the scene with The Collector during the movie.
Trivia: Director James Gunn has said that this film contains an Easter egg that no fan to this day has been able to point out.
Trivia: Joseph Gordon-Levitt auditioned for the role of Star-Lord. Interestingly, Gordon-Levitt played a character named Chris Pratt in the 2007 film The Lookout, a role which the actor Chris Pratt planned to audition for.
Trivia: When Bereet comes up from the hold of Quill's ship after leaving Morag she is wearing the same T-shirt that the young Quill wore at the hospital where his mother died.
Trivia: The studio originally wanted Amanda Seyfried for the role of Gamora. But despite loving the screenplay, Seyfried feared that given the obscure nature of the characters and the inherent weirdness of the script, the movie would bomb at the box office. She didn't want to be in the only MCU film to fail commercially. The film ended up going on to be a massive success, and Seyfried has expressed some regret over the decision.
Trivia: The worms in a tank in the Collector's collection are worms from James Gunn's 2006 film "Slither." (Source: Film School Rejects).
Trivia: Dave Bautista was driving to the gym when he got the call from his manager and agent to inform him he got the role of Drax. He was informed by being told "Congratulations, Mr. Drax." He claims that upon being informed, he broke down crying hysterically and had to go home, because he was so happy and awe-struck by landing the role.
Trivia: Troma Films creator Lloyd Kaufman has a brief cameo during the prison sequence. He is seen among other inmates briefly looking over a railing. "Guardians" director James Gunn got his start with Troma and is good friends with Kaufman, hence the cameo.
Trivia: When Quill has been arrested on Xandar and his name and crimes are being reviewed, his alias is shown on the view screen but it appears as "space-lord" and not "star-lord." As ever, they've got his name wrong.
Chosen answer: Each realm is actually more of a dimension than a single world. So Xandar would be part of Midgard. The orb is the housing for one of the Infinity Gems. The Tesseract is also an Infinity Gem. The stone in Loki's scepter and the Aether from Thor: The Dark world are two others. All 6 gems can be combined on the Infinity Gauntlet which enables the user to do whatever he wishes just by thinking about it. Wielded by Thanos, among others, in the comics.
Grumpy Scot