When Fast & Furious and Riddick star Vin Diesel revealed that he would be starring in a Marvel Studios movie at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, speculation was soon running rampant. Would he be Thanos? The Vision? Black Panther?! (I still don't get that one...) Well, it was later revealed that he will be voicing Groot in James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy. However, he recently let slip some HUGE details about the future of Marvel's Cinematic Universe. Let's take a closer look at some of those comments from that lengthy video interview mentioned above.
"When I met with Marvel it wasn’t for anything immediate, it was to talk about a film that would be introduced in the Phase 3 part of Marvel, not for a few years. You wouldn’t be able to see it for a few years. In my mind, Marvel were doing it right, they were enrolling me at the ground level which is the best way to enrol me.
The next Monday, Marvel talks to me and says “We’re going to send something over in two weeks. We want to focus on the 2016 but we also want to, if possible, answer this growing request for something now.” I don’t have six months to play a character in the immediate future, it’s all booked… there was no way I was going to be able to deliver… after Comic-Con, we were at a stalemate..."
So, as we've already heard, Marvel Studios wanted Vin Diesel for one of their two 2016 movies. There's nothing to say they want him for a leading role in a new franchise like Daredevil or Doctor Strange, but if it's not that, then it must be for another of their characters; perhaps a supporting or villainous role in a sequel to November's Thor: The Dark World or next year's Captain America: The Winter Soldier? As of right now, it sounds as if he WILL still be doing that project in three years time, and voicing Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy is simply a way of giving in to fan demand and keeping Diesel "in the family" until then. Or, as he puts it, "enrolling me at the ground".
"I get the call, I go down to Marvel. A great meeting. It was even talking about something so big I can’t even talk about because it’s like the merging of brands in a way, which I won’t get into. That was something way, way, way, way, way down the road."
Now this is interesting. Assuming that a third instalment of The Avengers is released in 2018, we will by that point be seeing "Phase 3" come to an end. Robert Downey Jr.'s contract will be over, as will Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans and a few others'. Will any of them want to resign after spending close to a decade in Marvel's movies? Whether this leads to a series of reboots or the actors being replaced in a James Bond type of casting trickery is a discussion for another day. More importantly, what is this "merging of brands"? With Ultron taking the stage in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, it seems fair to say that we'll see Thanos as the main villain in the follow-up to that. That could potentially mean that the movie will feature Earth's Mightiest Heroes AND the Guardians of the Galaxy, resulting in a huge climax to "Phase 3". After all, with Vin Diesel providing the voice of Groot, it makes sense they would talk about when he would be expected to return...
What do you guys think?