The mystery is over. And even though Marvel Studios did not officially announce it on their website, actor Vin Diesel has confirmed that he's voicing and doing some motion capture work to play Groot in next year's Guardians of the Galaxy.
In an interview with Maria Menounos, Diesel talked about his meeting with Marvel back in late spring/early summer, a Marvel question during his Riddick panel at this past San Diego Comic-Con, his daughter's help in him choosing to voice Groot and more. You can see all this starting around the 50-minute mark of the video interview below.
There is one thing to note about the actor's interview and that's the fact it sounds like he is still planning on doing something with Marvel in 2016 (or later) for Phase 3. Previously, it's been teased he initially met for a role in Marvel's Phase 3 of their movie universe and now the actor's interview comments make it seem like another Marvel role could be in the cards post-Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Diesel even says that it's a "merging of the brands" and what that means remains to be seen. Many will automatically begin to speculate a potential Sony and/or Fox crossover movie with their Spider-Man or X-Men movie franchises but that's a bit of a stretch at the moment. Could this happen? Anything is possible down the road but Disney is known to be highly protective of its brands and since they don't own the movie rights to those characters it is just as doubtful as it is hopeful.
In the end, Diesel's tease of something else coming is interesting and he could be the leading role of another new Marvel franchise like an Inhumans movie (maybe as their leader Black Bolt) or potentially a Namor movie once his immediate acting schedule clears up. Even though Marvel doesn't have Namor's rights, Universal Studios does, a "merging of brands" could be considered as working with Universal since they still own Imperius Rex's movie rights and previously gave Marvel back the rights to the Hulk while retaining the hero's movie distribution rights. A similar deal could be in the works with Namor which would help Marvel Studios get to an eventual new ensemble team consisting of Hulk, Namor and Doctor Strange post-The Avengers 3 with a Defenders movie.
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