Ever since the first trailer for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ dropped on Jimmy Kimmel LIVE last month, fans have been talking about how different this Phase Two film is going to be compared to all the Marvel movies that came before it. There has been talk of Chris Pratt’s slamming bod as Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord, the uniqueness of Groot and Rocket, and the overall hilarity of ‘Hooked On A Feeling’ being used in the trailer (even though there’s a deeper meaning to the song to Quill). But another stand out from that trailer was the first glimpses of former ‘Doctor Who’ star Karen Gillan as Nebula. She certainly isn’t the cheery Amy Pond that we’ve come to know and love in this movie and recently the actress talked about that while promoting her latest work at South By Southwest.

While being interviewed by MTV in Texas for her upcoming horror film ‘Oculus’ earlier this week, Gillan was asked about her character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She started by saying that despite the team and the other characters in the movie being largely unknown to even the comic book reading population, James Gunn’s latest work is a risk worth taking because of how different ‘Guardians’ is from other superhero movies:

“I just think it’s a new direction for Marvel, it’s really, really funny. It’s not taking itself seriously at all. It’s tongue in cheek. And just to see people be excited about that new tone is cool.”

Then she went on to talk about a very important fight scene that takes place between herself and Zoe Saldana, who plays the deadliest woman in the universe Gamora. Not only is it a badass sequence that took a lot of training on her part, but it also sheds some light on the massive backstory shared between these two fierce women:

“Yeah, there’s a big girlie fight sequence, but it’s not that girlie. They made sure there weren’t any nice pirouettes or anything like that… This is the integral one for my character, because it’s not just a physical battle. Their relationship goes very deep, and there’s a huge history between them. So there’s a lot more to it than just the physical.”

For the whole interview, check out the video below:

Are you excited to see Karen Gillan in action as Nebula in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’? What were your thoughts on the character from the first glimpses that we got of her in the trailer? Let us know in the comment section.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ starring Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Benicio Del Toro, and Michael Rooker blasts off on August 1st, 2014.