Will Poulter was the new kid on the block in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, both figuratively and nearly literally. His genetically engineered character, baddie Adam Warlock, is incredibly powerful, but also described as being a “child,” because he was taken out of his birthing pod too soon.

The English actor admits he was scared to join writer-director James Gunn‘s final Guardians movie, seeing how he was such a fan of the first two Marvel Studios films — and how Gunn’s band of misfits became like a family on screen and off. However, he explains, “I couldn’t have been … made to feel more welcome.”

He continues, “I was nervous from the outside looking in, I think because I was a really big fan of the Guardians movies and within the Marvel Universe, this was the trilogy, as it now is, of films that I was kind of the biggest admirer of. And so you look at something as a fan, and you think that’s cool to be able to appreciate that as a fan … You don’t imagine yourself being a part of it.”

Poulter continues, “Something that I thought was gonna be really, really scary, actually, has just been really good fun. You know, I think because of what James said, you know, he makes a point of making a really fun environment, you know, surrounds himself with really great people … And it just made the experience so, so fun, which is, like, really important because it’s this pressure. And, you know, as a new kid, I was pretty scared. So that made it easy.”

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 had a stand-up #1 second weekend in theaters both here and overseas, Rocket-ing to a $529 million take worldwide.

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