‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Director Reveals Baby Groot’s Origins

Our favorite breakout character of Guardians of the Galaxy was most definitely Baby Groot, a cute little dancing baby sapling, who stole everyone’s hearts. Apparently, Guardians of the Galaxy director, James Gunn, loves Baby Groot just as the rest of us. According to Hollywood Reporter, in a Guardians of the Galaxy Blu-ray featurette clip focusing on the designing of Baby Groot, the director explained that there are two Baby Groots in the movie – one that he referred to as just a “stick with a face”, while one one he said was “cuter”. Take a look at the video below and find out which version he prefers and how the character changed throughout the development process.

Vin Diesel, the voice of Baby Groot, also appears in the clip and reveals how proud he is that his character is so beloved. “It feels like the audience is going to be with Groot for a long time”, the actor said. “What is cooler than that?”

James Gunn also explained that the film had already been entirely shot before he and the rest of the crew brought Baby Groot to life, before they even knew how he would look like. Fortunately, they didn’t have to debate too much over how to design the character. “By that time, our design team knew exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, and I described it pretty well, and it didn’t go through too many iterations before it got to the Baby Groot that’s on screen”, the director said.

A few days ago, James Gunn also explained why even though most movie toys launch right after the feature’s premiere, he and his team waited so long to start the Baby Groot toy production. In an interview with Vulture for the upcoming DVD release, he exposed his plan:

While we were still shooting the movie, I brought up putting Dancing Baby Groot out as a toy… The reason it didn’t happen is because you have some control in the film industry over secrets getting out there, but the people you don’t have much control over are the toy people, unfortunately. Those toy designs get out, always! And people definitely would have gotten hold of the Baby Groot if we had started manufacturing it in time for it to come out after the movie, so that was the biggest reason we didn’t push on that particular element.

The same interview reveals that the official Dancing Baby Groot toy will be available for purchase this December. In the meantime, check out Baby Groot’s most memorable dancing moves.