‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Reveals That Thor Can Speak Groot

When Groot (Vin Diesel) joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, fans instantly fell in love with the sentient tree-like being. Although Groot was big and burly, serving as Rocket Raccoon’s (Bradley Cooper) personal bodyguard, Groot adored the audience when it was revealed his vocabulary was made up of just three words: “I,” “Am,” and “Groot.”

Throughout the two Guardians films, Rocket’s really the only member of the group that understands the former resident of Planet X. Now, thanks to a quick mention in Avengers: Infinity War, we now have at least one character in the MCU that understands what Groot is saying.

Minor spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War ahead. You’ve been warned.

When Rocket and Groot join Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on his journey to Nivadellir to forge a new weapon, we find out Groot has to use the bathroom. After Rocket tries convincing Groot to pee in a can, Thor joins the conversation, revealing he knows what Groot is talking about.

Surprised, Rocket asks Thor how he found out how to “speak Groot,” to which the Asgardian king responded he took the class as an elective on Asgard.

Although we haven’t really seen much in terms of Groot’s origin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character has quite a storied history in Marvel comic mythos.

The character first appeared as a kaiju-sized terror in Tales to Astonish #13 (1960), as created by the legendary Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In the comics, Groot belongs to an alien race called the Flora Colussus. The bipedal trees hail from Planet X and their voice boxes are so hardened, the members of the race are unable to say anything other than “I Am Groot.”

More recently, however, Marvel made a huge change to Groot in the pages of Infinity Countdown #1. After a run-in with The Gardener — who had been trying to grow his own personal army of Groots — Groot was granted a full vocabulary, or as Rocket put it, The Gardener restored Groot’s “factory settings.”

After finding out that Thor can speak Groot, it appears that Marvel Studios is changing up the character’s origin just a tad and instead of saying “I Am Groot” out of necessity, it’s a spoken language.

Avengers: Infinity War is now in theaters.

What’d you think of the revelation that Thor could speak Groot? Let us know in the comments below!