James Gunn Confirms What We Suspected About That Sweet Groot Scene

This article contains spoilers for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

If you've seen "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," you probably have some questions. How is the new lineup of Guardians going to gel together? Did the High Evolutionary survive? Who is the seemingly pivotal new character Adam Warlock, and why was he so wasted in the film? These are all valid, even burning questions. But I have another one for you, one that may not be as burning, but is just as valid, given a remarkable amount of character development on his behalf. What, uh, is Groot?

It's easy to look past the peculiarity that is Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel and played primarily by Krystian Godlewski in motion capture) when the other Guardians include a bug lady, a jacked killing machine, and a talking raccoon. But even in the sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are few creatures as singular as Groot. He's an anthropomorphic humanoid tree made of ultra-hardy dendronic wood, he ranges between baby-sized and ten feet tall, and he can (basically) only say one thing: "I am Groot." Though the MCU Groot is worlds away from his Marvel comic book origins, one thing remains the same: his strong-and-silent-type aura of mystery inspires feverish fan theorizing. 

By the beginning of "Vol. 3," every Guardian except the newly-arrived from the past Gamora can understand what he really means when he utters his iconic, Pokémon-esque catchphrase. Once she's spent enough time with him, she starts understanding him too. And finally, by the end of the film, one of the biggest mysteries of Groot is finally unveiled: we, the audience, having ventured far and wide throughout the galaxy with him, can now understand what he's saying too.

At the end of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," the Guardians are all talking and Groot utters the line, "I love you guys." And we actually hear it, for what it means, in English! It slips by relatively quickly. You'd be forgiven if you didn't even catch it. But the moment is the perfect send-off to the most beloved team in the MCU, indicating that we too played our part in defending the galaxy from evil. We're accepted by the Guardians as one of their own, and we're even loved by old Grooty. 

Director James Gunn confirmed this interpretation when it was posed to him on Twitter, saying, "Spoiler alert: Yes, that's exactly what it means." But it's one thing to understand Groot, another to be loved by him, and quite another to appreciate what that means. This final lifting of the veil between us and the camaraderie of the Guardians comes at the end of a long journey for, as Rocket puts it in the first movie, Groot's "vocabulistics." If we had understood Groot's endangered language in the first Guardians film, it wouldn't have made nearly the impact it makes when it comes at the end of "Vol. 3." 

But because director James Gunn is one of the better filmmakers within the pan-Marvel-DC-universe, one who is particularly adept at character development, this minor third-act twist hits the audience as an experience of complete catharsis. If you're hazy on exactly what seeds Gunn planted over the trilogy to sprout up this gorgeous canopy of fan service, then come take a walk with me, will you?

Groot's comic debut came in 1960, predating just about every Marvel comics hero and villain, save Captain America and Namor the Sub-Mariner. In "Tales to Astonish" #13, Groot was a villain dubbed "the Monster from Planet X" who'd come to Earth to abduct humans for all manner of sinister experiments. Crucially, in this incarnation, he spoke perfect English. When he finally appeared as a Guardian in Gunn's first film in the trilogy, he more closely resembled his brief appearance in the 2008 crossover comic "Annihilation: Conquest." That's where we first saw Gamora, Drax, Star-Lord, Mantis, Rocket, and Groot — all products of different writers — united on the side of good. It's also where Groot was given both his friendship with Rocket and his amusing speech limitations.

In the first film, Rocket comments that Groot "don't know talking good like me and you," that his "vocabulistics" are "limited to 'I' and 'am' and 'Groot,' exclusively in that order." By the film's end, Groot's mind and heart have clearly expanded as he declares "We are Groot" before sacrificing himself. 

Groot's crucial role in the larger MCU was clear by "Avengers: Infinity War." Several Guardians had come to be able to understand the language of his Flora colossus people, and even Captain America politely responds, "I am Steve Rogers," when Groot quips his famous line.

It already felt like we knew the brawny old oak as well as we know Star-Lord or Rocket, but Gunn decided to gift us with the power of interpretation in "Vol. 3," when we hear him utter, "I love you guys." Groot's been blown up, re-planted, cycled through a baby phase, and it appears his evolution is far from over. Wherever the new Guardians go next, we hope Groot remains not just the team's muscle, but its heart.

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is currently in theaters.