Warning: spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 are ahead!
Just like in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy, when Sean Gunn wasn't on his hands and knees playing Rocket Raccoon on set in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, he was appearing as the Ravager Kraglin. Yondu's second-in-command didn't have a lot to do in the first movie, but he was given an expanded role in the sequel, which included assisting the Guardians with Yondu while they were on Ego. While Kraglin can officially count himself as one of the team's allies, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 left it ambiguous whether or not he was actually one of its new members by the end. Now director James Gunn has clarified that Kraglin is not an official Guardian. In Gunn's words:
I don't think he's part of the Guardians. I would call him an adjunct member of the Guardians. He's... around. He doesn't have voting rights.
So while Kraglin gets to hang out with Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, Groot and Mantis, you won't find him on the official team roster, as James Gunn confirmed to Empire. Kraglin is no stranger to being a team player having been part of Yondu's Ravagers for so long in the MCU, but with that particular faction of space pirates all gone by the time Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, maybe now's a good time for Kraglin to venture out on his own. Fortunately, he's on good terms with the Guardians of the Galaxy, so he always has a place to go if he wants company. Well, maybe Drax isn't keen to have Kraglin around given the incident with Yondu's whistle-controlled arrow.
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Kraglin accidentally initiated the events that led to Yondu being overthrown as head of their Ravagers faction when he pointed out that Yondu seemed to care more about Peter Quill then he did his fellow Ravagers. That paved the way for Taserface to take over, but when Taserface started killing Yondu's loyalists, a.k.a. Kraglin's friends, Kraglin realized he'd made a mistake and helped Yondu, Rocket and Baby Groot escape captivity. When the four of them traveled to Ego to save Peter, Gamora and Drax, Kraglin stayed on the ship to pilot it for rescuing. After Yondu died, Peter gave Kraglin Yondu's fin and reassembled arrow as gifts, and we can only hope that the next time we see him, he'll have better control with the weapon compared to how he fared with it in that post-credits scene.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is now playing in theaters, and don't forget to read our review of the movie. Since there's been no word on Kraglin appearing in Avengers: Infinity War (though Gunn will be acting out Rocket again), maybe he'll pop up again in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
