The Walking Dead star Michael Rooker was on hand at Stan Lee’s Comikaze this past weekend, during which he offered a few words on the upcoming cosmic Marvel movie Guardians of the Galaxy, specifically the role of the treelike creature Groot (to be voiced by Vin Diesel), as well as fans’ growing enthusiasm for the little-known property.

“Groot is not a tree, he’s a different being from a different universe,” says Rooker. “And he’s not like a tree the way we have trees. We use it for cordwood, for cooking and heating our homes. Groot is a whole different being from a whole different galaxy, somewhere you don’t even know where he’s from. I don’t even know where he’s from. He just happens to look like bark… [Guardians of the Galaxy] is a great series, I love the old series and the new one’s pretty cool, too. So I think [the film] is helping people go back and look at the series if they haven’t seen it yet. Then they get all high about it, and it’s awesome.”

Guardians of the Galaxy is directed by James Gunn (Super) and will see Rooker as Yondu and Diesel as Groot alongside Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation) as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana (Star Trek Into Darkness) as Gamora, Dave Bautista (Riddick) as Drax the Destroyer, Bradley Cooper (American Hustle) as Rocket Raccoon, Benicio Del Toro (Sin City) as The Collector, Lee Pace (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) as Ronan the Accuser, Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) as Nebula, Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) as Korath, John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) as Rhomman Dey and Glenn Close (Damages) as the leader of the Nova Corps. The film is set for release on August 1st 2014.