‘Avengers 4’ Director Wants to Bring Groo the Wanderer to Marvel Cinematic Universe

Brothers Joe and Anthony Russo have currently helmed three Marvel Cinematic Universe movies together and their fourth feature for Marvel Studios, Avengers 4, is set to debut next May. Though their future with the Disney-owned studio is still unclear for a post-Avengers 4 world, that’s not stopping the brothers from discussing characters they’d like to introduce in future properties.

Earlier this week at a screening of Avengers: Infinity War and a follow-up fan Q&A — hosted by the fine folks at Collider — Joe Russo talked about the next character he’d like introduce to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Brace yourself, it’s an answer virtually nobody could have guessed.

“Groo the Wanderer,” Joe revealed. “Anybody? Anybody? We have comic book collectors here, right?”

Groo — not Groot — is a character based in fantasy tales from various publishers from the 1980s to present. The character was created by writer and artist Sergio Aragones, first appearing in Eclipse’s Destroyer Duck #1 (May 1982). Groo is basically a parody character of popular barbarian-type comics of the time such as Conan and Red Sonja.

Though he’s a master swordsman, Groo’s often times portrayed as a warrior who’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, destroying towns and civilizations completely unwittingly.

Groo the Wanderer is often times regarded as one of the first successful creator-owned books as the character bounced around from publisher to publisher with the rights still belonging to Aragones. Originally appearing in comics printed by Pacific Comics in 1982, the character’s stories only lasted eight issues before the published stopped printing titles because of financial difficulties.

Eventually, Aragones and writer Mark Evanier were able to strike a deal with Epic Comics — then an imprint of Marvel Comics — which resulted in the longest run of Groo the Wanderer to date. The title lasted an astonishing 120 issues at Epic, even winning an Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication in 1992.

Before too long, financial woes plagued the title, forcing Aragones and Evanier to take the book to the newly-found Image Comics in 1994 before moving it to Dark Horse in 1998.

At the same Q&A the Russo Brothers also revealed that they’re essentially done with MCU projects until Marvel Studios decides to adopt a Secret Wars storyline to live-action. The first Secret Wars storyline that took place in the 1980s shows all Marvel characters teleported a new dimension called Battleworld to duke it out. The latest Secret Wars held in 2015 served as a mega-event for Marvel Comics, which ended up combining all universes in the publisher’s multiverse into one single continuity.

Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, and the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019.