It was one of the most drawn-out castings of 2013, but Marvel Studios closed the year by finally confirming last month that Vin Diesel will lend his voice to the tree-like character Groot in August’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Now the Fast & Furious star has posted an image to Facebook showing himself in the voice booth, as well as giving us his thoughts on the finished footage that he’s seen from James Gunn’s cosmic superhero ensemble…
“Some of you may remember the character I voiced back in 1998 [in The Iron Giant]. Last month I had the opportunity to voice a new character, on the Disney lot… and I was shocked to see the same sound engineer, Doc, who was there when Brad Bird was directing me 15 years earlier, as the Iron Giant. As artists we are susceptible to clocking omens… and this was a great sign. As I worked, with James Gunn, breathing life into GROOT… I saw more and more of the film… wow… This summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy is going to blow you away… Grateful for the opportunity to make magic.”
“From Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster franchises of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, comes a new team — the Guardians of the Galaxy. An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits — Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Peter discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand — with the galaxy’s fate in the blanace.”
Guardians of the Galaxy is is set for release on August 1st, 2014 with a cast that also includes Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation) as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana (Star Trek Into Darkness) as Gamora, Bradley Cooper (American Hustle) as Rocket Raccoon, Dave Bautista (Riddick) as Drax the Destroyer), Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead) as Yondu, 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.
Originally published January 13, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
