I Am Groot: How The Watcher Factors Into Season 2

Disney+ dropped five new I Am Groot shorts today, and the second season of the animated series is as delightful as ever. The trailer for the show teased the return of The Watcher, the character first voiced by Jeffrey Wright in What If…? The character served as the narrator for the series, and he returned for I Am Groot in a similar role. In the fifth new episode, “Groot And The Great Prophecy,” The Watcher watches as Groot embarks on an Indiana Jones-like adventure to uncover the last seed of Drez-Lar. Not only is Wright’s commentary hilarious, but it also lets Marvel Cinematic Universe fans see The Watcher in a new light.

In the episode, The Watcher explains that only the worthiest of champions will be able to unearth the seed. Groot “finds himself in the heart of an ancient Drez-Lar temple with a mythic prophecy he must fulfill to save the universe.” The Watcher attempts to direct Groot on the right path as the Guardian has a little too much fun eluding the temple’s death traps. Groot eventually comes across the coveted seed, but he is more interested in getting back his bouncy ball than he is with fulfilling the prophecy at hand. Much to The Watcher’s dismay, the seed is destroyed, and the all-seeing being worries about the fate of Groot and the universe. However, it turns out that Groot was the root of the prophecy all along.

The most interesting part of the episode is that Groot seems to be able to see The Watcher, which confuses the cosmic being. While I Am Groot is not considered MCU canon, the fact that Groot can see The Watcher does feel like it could be important in the future. Perhaps more will be answered when the long-awaited second season of What If..? debuts on Disney+. 

How Did The Watcher Come To Be in I Am Groot?

 I Am Groot director Kirsten Lepore recently spoke with ComicBook.com and revealed it was story editor Ryan Little, who also served as the script coordinator on What If…?, who helped bring The Watcher into I Am Groot. 

“Our story editor Ryan Little works on What If…? and worked on it, I feel like since the beginning? He was very familiar with writing The Watcher and he was also very involved in like those initial log lines for a story,” Lepore explained. “I can’t totally remember, but it must have been us thinking about, ‘Oh, how can we bring in some other interesting characters to this group world?’ Maybe Ryan had suggested it since he’s sort of What If…? meets the I Am Groot team in a way.”

“We threw out a lot of different ideas in that log line document,” Lepore added. “I was so happy that they were really interested in trying it out because we definitely see The Watcher in a very different capacity than how we get to see him in a show like What If…?. It’s nice to infuse a little bit of comedy into that episode.”

I Am Groot Season 2 is now streaming on Disney+.