Could Groot Stay A Baby in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

Those who had read Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s beloved run on Guardians of the Galaxy before they saw the film weren’t as surprised as the rest of the world to see Groot “killed” and then reborn as a sapling in a pot.

During and following Annihilation, Groot twice appeared to die, and both times a small portion of his body was able to survive and eventually regrow…but it wasn’t as simple as a Swamp Thing story where as long as he’s connected to plant life, he can immediately resume his normal acvities.

No, with Groot, there’s actually some gestation time…during which he actually does stay in his “baby” form for a while.

Will they use that in the movies?

Well, it’s hard to say.

On the one hand, it definitely decreases Groot’s combat effectiveness. In the first film, he was kind of their “tank” — the strong, silent type who clearly enjoyed that role. Leaving him less than a foot tall would seemingly demand a re-working of his role within the team and the story.

On the other hand, it would help to offset that feeling that Groot didn’t make any kind of sacrifice at the end of the first movie. If both he and the team are still feeling the ramifications of his decision to sacrifice himself for the rest of the Guardians, it differentiates the death and rebirth of Groot from things like Phil Coulson’s return, or Loki’s, or whomever. That death in the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to be a revolving door certainly evokes comics…but it doesn’t always sit right with critics and audiences.

Plus…well, we’d have another whole generation of cool “baby Groot” merchandise, in case there weren’t enough variations on the Dancing Groot for you to buy.

And, of course, there’s another thing: while we kind of characterized the need to reinvent Groot as a net negative up above, that can be tremendously exciting. Guardians of the Galaxy felt different than most Marvel movies before it, and a big part of that was the care that went into building the world and the feeling that every decision that was made, was made in service of the characters and/or the director’s vision.

James Gunn once told me that he didn’t want to direct a Star Wars film, even though he loves the franchise, because he wouldn’t really be able to build his own world and set the tone of the film’s universe. That was a huge part of what he enjoyed about Guardians, he implied, and he wouldn’t want to make a high-stakes, high-stress movie without a perk like that.

That sounds to be like a guy who would revel in the challenge of trying to figure out how to make Vin Diesel’s character and voice work at 9″ tall, and reworking the whole practical/combat composition of the team. It would give both Gunn and Diesel opportunities to do something really different and surprising in the context of a big-budget sequel…which in and of itself is no mean feat.