Vin Diesel to Play Sentient Tree Groot in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

[Clankenbeard]

I'll admit, I wasn't too thrilled about this movie. I have been a Marvel fanboy since the 70s, but I didn't know a thing about Guardians of the Galaxy. Well, I know about DC's Guardians on OA, but that ain't this.

So, I went over to Comixology and bought Guardians of the Galaxy Vol#3 to check out what storylines Marvel is cultivating in 2013. http://www.comixology.com/Guardians-of-the-Galaxy-Vol-3-1/digital-comic/38728 It is good. The writing is good. The characters are good. The art is good. I read 10 issues (and then the art went south).

The premise is as follows: Everybody on the team is sort of the last of their kind. That's the "link" they celebrate.
Groot: Giant tree thing that only says "I am Groot" but Rocket understands this as different sentences.
Rocket Raccoon: Super intelligent, down-to-earth, genetic mutation with a lust for mischief/killing. "Bang! Murdered you!"
Star Lord: Half human(mom)/something else. His dad is the ruler of some section of the galaxy. He's the Puckinsh rogue of space.
Gamora: Daughter of Thanos. She is a sword-fighting martial arts, lasering super assassin.
Drax the Destroyer: Big musclebound dude who can breathe in space and uses a big axe. I think his story is that he was a musician resurrected by Kronos as a badass to kill Thanos. He reminds me of DC's The Persuader.

Rocket will be the character everybody likes.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Spot on casting. A wooden character for a wooden actor.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Groot only ever says one thing ("I am Groot") so all expression and pathos will have to be in the delivery. And while I know Vin Diesel does get somewhat typecast as the tough guy who never shows his emotions (which is as much his fault as anyone else's, lets face it) I think The Iron Giant would have been a much poorer film if he hadn't been voicing the eponymous robot. So hey, could be perfect casting here

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

He knocked it out of the park with this:

I imagine he can give pathos to a sentient alien tree thing just as well.

What they ^ said. Good grief, Vin Diesel makes a simple "Superman?." line absolutely heartbreaking in that movie. My 3 year old son absolutely loves "the robot movie" right now.

I'm not sure why people doubt Vin. The man created his own video game company because licensed games suck and he gave us Escape from Butcher Bay after that.

 

[Mr. Q]

He knocked it out of the park with this:

I imagine he can give pathos to a sentient alien tree thing just as well.

Couldn't have said it better.

I got a chance to see a bootleg copy of the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer from SDCC and I was very impressed with what I saw. Hope James Gunn and company will knock this out of the park.

 

[Triaed]

Diesel has an awseome voice! Let's admit as much.
He will be lending his voice to a CGI character, so "wooden" performances or showing emotions con camera are not an issue here. Besides, the dude is a huge geek, so I am pretty sure he will respect the part and the material.

 

[Pickapok]

Since nobody made this joke yet; his performance is bound to be rather wooden in this one.

Oh come on can't you just leaf the puns alone? You always make so mulch ado about nothing. So Vin diesel got a role, good for him! He was pining for one so badly after all the only thing he has been playing is the rootless wanderer Riddick or branching out into street racing. Just give it some time it will grow on you.

Give him a break, yew can't beat a good tree pun. I wooden have expected anything different from a news article like this...

All these puns will sap the life from me, seriously puns are the root of all poor comedy.

On topic

I know next to nothing about Guardians of the Galaxy but a movie abput non human super heroes does twig my interest.

You guys need to stop sprouting all this nonsense

Seriously, I think these jokes are branching out a little too far now. Please stop planting these awful puns in our heads.

There is no stopping the puns. But hey, if you cambium, join em! Go with the grain! Knot that you would ever catch me making puns, of course.

 

[Pinkamena]

I'll have to remember to watch this movie. I'm not the biggest fan of Diesels acting, but it'll be interesting how he handles being what's basically an intergalactic ent.

 

[Reaper195]

I love Vin Diesel but I haven't read a comic book in years. I will still see the movie because they are entertaining, I just wish I knew who they were.

Heh, right? I recently played Injustice (Which is DC, not Maevel, but still relevant) and could only name about five or six characters. Everyone else was new to me. At least most of the Marvel movies tend to introduce the characters, instead of just "Yeah, these are people you should know." which X-Men kind of did.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

He knocked it out of the park with this:

I imagine he can give pathos to a sentient alien tree thing just as well.

My thoughts EXACTLY! I can't wait to see how Vin pulls off Groot though honestly, I don't really know jack about The Guardians...my extent of knowledge begins and, ends with the episode of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes wherein they are the special guests (and what's his name who voiced Master Chief was the voice of Nova which was also awesome)

 

[Strain42]

I thought this had actually been confirmed a while ago, but maybe this was the official confirmation lol

The story I remember reading is that Marvel had actually planned on using Diesel to star in a Phase 3 movie of the MCU (I am curious who they would have gotten him to play if that had been the case) but the rumor at Comic-Con was that he was gonna play Groot, and the producers noted the excitement from fans by this possibility so just decided to give him that part.

Which I do think is great. I mean if you have a character who can only say "I AM GROOT!!!" You want someone with a distinct, powerful voice, and as others have said already, his Iron Giant was incredible, and I have no doubt he'll be an amazing Groot.

Honestly, it's Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon that has me slightly more concerned. But Marvel is usually pretty good with their casting choices. Maybe he'll surprise me.