What Has Changed About Groot Other Than His Size, According To James Gunn

baby groot in guardians of the galaxy vol. 2

If you've seen the original Guardians of the Galaxy movie, you may already have fallen in love with the character of Groot. However, thanks to the ending of the first movie, we already know that Groot will be changing a lot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Much of this has to do with his size in the new film, as Baby Groot is much smaller than the Groot we met first on the big screen. However, recently director James Gunn revealed there were other changes in regards to Groot on the set of Vol. 2. Here's what he had to say:

I think also, the whole personality of Groot and who he was, it was there on the page and then you forget about it while you were shooting the first movie. But now everyone knows Groot so well that we have much larger awareness, me and the cast, of a baby Groot being there at all times. And him being one of the members in the scene... I think he's a better-written character than the first Groot in some ways. Not that he was poorly written at all, but I think he's just more complete character.

Please keep an eye on the note that James Gunn mentioned Groot is a better character in some ways, because it will become important to this story later on. As Gunn tells Comicbook.com, it's certainly easy to see how the character--voiced by Vin Diesel-- is going to be more apparent in the second film. Although Groot was a large character with a pretty specific set of skills during the first movie, those skills mostly played out through CGI, meaning he wasn't a big presence on the set. He'll be Baby Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and because Groot was such a popular character once the movie came out, Gunn seems to be saying the atmosphere regarding the characters was different on the set the second time around.

The director later took to Twitter to discuss this comment, backing off from the part that seemed to imply Groot was worse written as a character the first time around.

All right - lots of articles coming out on this - I said Groot was a 'more complete character IN SOME WAYS.'

Clearly, Groot is one of the coolest comic book characters to make it to the big screen so far. His trajectory has been unexpected, as he went from a large creature to a young sapling. He also is a character of few words but one who is still able to achieve great meaning. We'll learn a lot more once Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 comes out, but it should be noted that producer Jonathan Schwartz has already piqued our interest regarding who Groot is and what he will remember.

Guardians of the Galazy Vol. 2 will officially make its way into theaters on May 5, 2017. You can take a look at what we know about the second movie in the franchise, or peruse all the movies headed to theaters with our movies premiere schedule.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.