Vin Diesel Confirms “I AM GROOT,” Will Voice Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Treelike Alien
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Before San Diego Comic-Con this year, actor Vin Diesel took a meeting with Marvel Studios to discuss appearing in one of their movies in an unidentified role. Movie pundits speculated that he was possibly playing Dr. Hank Pym (AKA Ant-Man) or the self-aware robot Vision. A few days ago, Vin Diesel updated his Facebook cover photo with an image of Groot, the treelike alien member of Guardians of the Galaxy. Obviously, this led to speculation that the Fast and The Furious actor would voice the role of Groot in the new Marvel movie. The Groot image was soon taken down, so is Vin Diesel playing Groot after all?
In an interview with Hero Complex, Vin Diesel has confirmed that he will indeed play the treelike alien Groot. Diesel talks about playing a role that is more interesting and less obvious than any other role he has played in the past. When asked about voicing Groot, Diesel responds:
I’m an actor. I can do whatever the … I want. As an actor, not everything has to be the most obvious choice. And sometimes, the best thing you can do — as far as Steven Spielberg and his advice — is to defy expectations. So if everybody thinks you’re going to go for this one thing and you flip it entirely and go for the strangest Marvel character, it’s interesting. And when something is interesting, it’s inspiring.
Considering his very busy schedule for the seventh Fast and The Furious film, Diesel lays down the ground work for working on a film in post-production rather than during principal photography of the Marvel movie. Chris Pratt, who plays Star-Lord, recently tweeted that filming on Guardians of the Galaxy is more than halfway finished. Diesel continues:
That’s the thing — I’m so busy. The audience wanted Vin and Marvel, Vin and Marvel. But I’m too busy to do a six-month role. So what Marvel came up with was really interesting. … I am watching a social wave influence and in some ways guide their thinking.
It seems very fitting that Diesel will voice the role of Groot. Although Groot is extremely intelligent, he only really says three words (“I AM GROOT”) because his brain and intelligence is so far advanced that his language seems primitive to everyone else. If you remember, Diesel voiced the Iron Giant in Brad Bird’s debut feature film. The Iron Giant was a gentle creature that spoke very little, much like Groot.
We’ll most likely hear more about Guardians of the Galaxy casting (namely, with Rocket Raccoon) as soon as the film wraps principal photography and goes into post-production. Apparently, Marvel featured the new cosmic movie with a brief teaser trailer at this year’s D23 Expo. While a suspicious “official teaser trailer” from Guardians of the Galaxy popped up on YouTube, director James Gunn took to Twitter to let people know that the trailer is a fake. If you watch the trailer, that should be painfully obvious.
Regardless, a real official teaser trailer should be released soon, most likely in front of Thor: The Dark World this November. Guardians of the Galaxy will not be released for another year, so there’s plenty of time for James Gunn and crew to make the film as good as it can be. The cosmic film is the riskiest film Marvel has made since the original Iron Man movie in 2008, so it has to work with general audiences for it to be as successful as the other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.
Guardians of the Galaxy stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Benicio del Toro, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Olivia Lovibond, John C. Reilly, and Glenn Close as Nova Prime. It will hit theaters everywhere on August 1, 2014, in 3D.
