Coming hot on the heels of the announcement that Paul Rudd has been cast in the lead role for Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man, Marvel Studios has finally confirmed that Vin Diesel (Riddick, Fast & Furious 6) will lend his voice to the tree-like Groot in next year’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
“Vin Diesel is a super awesome dude,” said director James Gunn on Facebook. “I can’t tell you how much I like this guy. I hope this [image] puts to rest as the silly Thanos-Vin stuff which people just seemed to make up out of nothing. He said he wanted to do it and we said we were talking to him. Everything else was people guessing and thinking they knew what was going to happen. It is completely official. AND he’s amazing. I never knew someone could say ‘I am Groot’ so many different ways and with such feeling (and that sounds like I’m kidding but I’m not!).”
Guardians of the Galaxy is set for release on August 1st 2014 with a cast that includes 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 (Silver Linings Playbook) as Rocket Raccoon, Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead) as Yondu, Benicio Del Toro (Sin City) as The Collector, Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) as Nebula, John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) as Rhomman Dey, Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) as Korath the Pursuer, and Glenn Close (Damages) as the leader of the Nova Corps.