The adult Groot was a standout in Guardians of the Galaxy, but not even Marvel Studios anticipated just how popular the baby version introduced in the mid-credits scene would be! When we next see the sentient alien tree, he'll have grown up a little, but as we saw in the trailer, he's going to still be very young (and rocking an awesome jacket which is somehow identical to the one worn by Star-Lord).
Talking to Collider, voice actor Vin Diesel shed some light on how the two Groots differ. "Yeah, there is a difference. He couldn’t be more naive as Baby Groot. I always think of the Groot that we saw on the first Guardians as a college-level Groot, so he’s not fully grown yet, but he’s a man. And once he sacrifices himself at the end of the movie, now he has to start all over, so to speak, but we’re gonna see this goofy, adorable, baby Groot thing running around the screen and just learning as he goes."
It sounds like he'll be stealing the show all over again in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 then, and much of that will no doubt be down to Diesel's performance. However, if you're not convinced that he's committed to the role, the Fast and Furious star recorded Groot's lines in 16 languages for the sequel!
"I think people are gonna love this movie. I think people are gonna love Guardians. I know that, on the first one, I, like, recorded six different languages, and now James Gunn wants to increase the number of languages we do this in. So, every ADR-ed line, every moment in the movie I have to do like 15, 16 times in different languages — which are cool because, you know, it means that my voice is being heard in countries where that’s not always the case, even with big movies that you do, like xXx or Fast [& Furious]. It’s usually voice actors in respective markets that say your lines and that’s not necessarily what the character is always. So, I love that, but it definitely makes it that much more challenging."
Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kurt Russell, the movie will be released on May 5th.