'Avengers: Infinity War': Teenage Groot Is Basically a Kid Too Tall For His Age

After first being introduced in James Gunns' Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), the bipedal tree we call Groot quickly won over a spot in each and every one of our hearts. In Groot's three appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we've seen three different iterations of the character.

The most recent version appeared in Avengers: Infinity War before being snapped away thanks to Thanos (Josh Brolin). Much older than the Baby Groot of Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Infinity War saw Groot in the tree-equivalency of his teenage years.

In fact, the concept artists responsible for coming up with the character's design compared him to a tall, awkward teenager. In the recently-released Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War - The Art of the Movie, Marvel Studios senior visual development artist Anthony Francisco compared Teen Groot to an angsty teen.

"I imagined a kid that was too tall for his age, which made him awkward when he walked," Francisco reflected. "And I pulled from my experiences as a kid because I used to love playing video games too, and now my son is just glued to his Switch or iPad."

"Adding a bit of teen angst to his facial expression made for a very moody Groot. I was fortunate in terms of researching body type because my son has friends that are long and lanky, and I used them for inspiration."

In the events of Infinity War, Teen Groot (Vin Diesel) went on an adventure across the cosmos with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), something directors Joe and Anthony Russo likened as one of their favorite parts of the film.

"Tonally, [it's] one of our favorite scenes in the movie. Thor is at his lowest point that he's been in any of the films. He's lost everything. And he's been partnered up with Rocket, who is perhaps one of the least emotional characters in the Marvel universe," Joe Russo said. "We thought that would be an interesting pairing if Thor had to pour his heart out to a character who — to a certain extent — lacks empathy, and see if it would affect that character in some way."

"I think what we love so much about the scene is how complicated the scene is. It's at times absurd and funny and completely tragic."

Avengers: Infinity War is now available on home media. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th, 2019.