Kevin Feige Says Vin Diesel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Role Isn’t Official Yet

By Rudie Obias | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

GrootWhile Guardians of the Galaxy wrapped production last week, the Marvel movie headed by director James Gunn will soon go into post-production to, among other things, add in its two most important CGI characters: Rocket Raccoon and Groot. We know Bradley Cooper is voicing the anthropomorphic raccoon, and all signs pointed to Fast and Furious actor Vin Diesel lending his distinctive voice to the treelike alien Groot. According to Marvel super-producer Kevin Feige, however, that might not be the case.

During an interview about the upcoming release of Thor: The Dark World, Kevin Feige clarified the Vin Diesel situation. “Yeah, I think it’s close,” Feige told the Huffington Post. “I think it’s close to being official for the Groot character. But, not 100 percent yet.”

It’s believed that Vin Diesel will voice and do the motion capture work for Groot in the new Marvel movie. He even posted a video of himself walking on stilts to practice moving like the seven-foot alien. Diesel had also name-dropped Guardians of the Galaxy and mentioned that his character only has one line — in the comics, Groot only ever says “I Am Groot,” and Rocket is the only character who can interpret his meaning.

It certainly seems like Diesel will wind up playing Groot, at least Diesel seems to be trying to give us that impression, but Marvel has yet to make it official. In the past, Diesel had mentioned that his schedule is very busy with other upcoming projects. If the Groot casting news is made official, that would mean Diesel will be starring in two summer blockbusters in 2014: Fast and Furious 7 and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Vin Diesel has been very open and candid with his entire film career. A few months ago, he took to Facebook to tell his fans that he took a meeting with Marvel Studios to play a character in an upcoming movie. While he didn’t divulge which character he would play, it was believed at the time that he might either play Dr. Hank Pym AKA Ant-Man or the Ultron-created robot Vision. As it turned out, he was being considered for a role in Guardians of the Galaxy. Considering his past role as The Iron Giant in the movie of the same name, Diesel would make a fine Groot.

As for the Marvel movie, co-stars Chris Pratt and Michael Rooker talked about the character and Guardians member Rocket Raccoon. While small and furry, Rocket Raccoon is a loud-mouthed, gun-happy alien with a heart of gold. Hopefully the Academy Award-nominated Bradley Cooper can bring that out of the character for the film.

We are really expecting to watch a Guardians of the Galaxy teaser trailer soon. It is believed that it will play before screenings of Thor: The Dark World, which opens on November 8th. The teaser will be the first time people will get a look at the cosmic team of peacemakers. If Marvel can sell general audiences on the weirdness that is Guardians of the Galaxy, then the comic book movie studio could sell audiences on virtually anything in the Marvel universe.

The comic book movie stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Benicio del Toro, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Rooker, Olivia Lovibond, John C. Reilly, and Glenn Close as Nova Prime.

Guardians of the Galaxy will hit theaters everywhere on August 1, 2014, in 3D.