Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vin Diesel Hugs His Groot

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Vin Diesel GrootWith the amount of Guardians of the Galaxy stuff we’ve written about today, and in recent days, you’d expect that the movie is damn near right on top of us, not hanging out, waiting for its August 1, 2014 release date. Well, Vin Diesel, always a friend of the fan, has taken it upon himself to give those of us eagerly awaiting news of Marvel’s deep space adventure. The beefy Fast and Furious star has once again taken to his Facebook page to unveil a photo of Groot, his seven-foot-tall, tree-like alien alter ego from writer/director James Gunn’s upcoming film. And it’s pretty damn cute, they look like old bros.

Groot began his comic book life as a villain, but in the mid-2000s was re-imagined as a good guy, with a noble spirit, nice heart, and all that. He originally wanted to kidnap humans and experiment on them. Despite a genius level intellect, he only says one thing, “I am Groot,” with various tones and inflections to give his words specific meaning in specific circumstances.

Given that Diesel and this model of Groot are roughly the same size, you have to assume that this is not to final scale. The Riddick star will lend his voice to the giant walking plant, and there will be some motion capture technology in play in the final version we see on screen. You may remember the video Diesel posted that showed him bouncing around on stilts, pretending to be a gigantic extraterrestrial warrior, one who looks like shrubbery. Groot’s best buddy, Rocket Raccoon, is also going to be completely computer generated, voiced by Bradley Cooper.

Guardians of the Galaxy isn’t the first time that Diesel has used social media to give fans a little something extra. Throughout the entire process, he regularly posted photos from Riddick, providing interested parties with a look at everything from behind the scenes antics to the first stills. He’s also been dishing out photos from The Fast and the Furious 7, though with Paul Walker’s tragic death, we’re still waiting for word on the status of that film.

Though we keep hearing the stars talk about Guardians, we’ve yet to see a trailer. That doesn’t mean Gunn and Marvel haven’t been active on the promo front. Gunn reportedly directed that bit of weirdness at the end of Thor: The Dark World back in November. And while that’s not from the finished film, it gives us an idea of what the world of the film may look like, and it’s suitably strange. Benicio Del Toro as the Collector looks something like an evil Liberace, and overall there is a lot of weirdness going on.

Following the adventures of a rag-tag group of space misfits who just might wind up having to save the entire universe, Guardians of the Galaxy stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Dave Bautista, John C. Reilly, and Glenn Close.