It's been well documented for the past several weeks that Vin Diesel has been in talks with Marvel to join their ensemble space opera, Guardians of the Galaxy, possibly as the voice of Groot. On Sunday, the actor posted a caption-less picture of Groot, the tree-like creature in the team, on his
Facebook page for a few hours until it was taken down and any mention of it removed from his timeline. The architect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and studio boss, Kevin Feige, did not mention Diesel in his presentation at D23, Disneys con, this past weekend, instead showing the same footage of GotG that aired at Comic-Con International a few weeks ago. Groot, a tree-like alien creature, can vary his size from really small to really large, has enormous strength, and is also incredibly intelligent. If destroyed, he can regrow so long as a splinter of himself is replanted. However his character in the comics only utters the phrase I Am Groot over and over - maybe this is one quality of the character that will change in the movie? There has been speculation on which character Diesel will play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since the actor posted a message about his meeting with Marvel in July on his Facebook page:
Marvel meeting today. Only the people in the room can tell you what was discussed. P.s. Thanks to Our page, for pushing to make it happen you know I get tunnel vision with my work and after that meeting today wow!
And it looks like the guessing is over as Diesel will be joining the Guardians as Groot. This narrows the uncast members of the Guardians to just one - Rocket Raccoon, a talking alien creature in the form of a raccoon whos also a ballistics expert and tactician. The rest of the team is made up of Chris Pratt as Star Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, and Dave Bautista as Drax. Guardians of the Galaxy will be released on 1 August 2014. Directed by James Gunn, it stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Lee Pace, Glenn Close, John C Reilly, Michael Rooker, Ophelia Lovibond, and Benicio Del Toro.