Groot Isn't Nearly As Old As He Looks In Guardians Of The Galaxy

Over the course of nearly a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we've seen quite a few different incarnations of Groot. The beloved talking alien tree is part of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise, but also appeared in both "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame" as a major player. In every film, Groot has evolved, portraying a different age, look, and personality. In director James Gunn's original "Guardians" in 2014, we saw what many would classify as adult Groot. As it turns out, that version of Groot wasn't nearly as old as we may have assumed.

Voiced by Vin Diesel, the original Groot seemed more mature (largely through his voice), but also some of his actions, including saving Star-Lord and the gang at the end of the film through a touching bit of self-sacrifice. However, Nicolas Aithadi, the visual effects supervisor for MPC, one of the companies that worked on the film, revealed to FX Guide in 2014 that Groot was actually just a teenager at the time.

"Groot is actually a teenager, not an old tree. One of the things that makes wood wood is bark, but it looks like wrinkles on characters. We started with photographs of bark on his face – it looked cool but it made him look too old. When we started to take the bark away it started to look flat. So we had more rugged bark on the side of his face, but receding on his front."

This kind of completely reframes what we thought we knew about Groot. A great many fans would probably have pegged the Groot from "Infinity War" as teen Groot. That wasn't the case though. So it all begs the question, how does Groot age, exactly?

In "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," we get to see Baby Groot, who resulted from the little bit of the original Groot that Rocket planted at the end of the first film. This allowed us to look at the life cycle of one of his species more thoroughly, as we traced the character's growth through "Infinity War," "Endgame," "Thor: Love and Thunder," and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3." We left off in a pretty interesting place with Groot most recently in the credits scene attached to that film.

But throughout the character's evolution on screen, the aging process has never been precisely explained. The answer, it seems, lies with James Gunn himself, who actually offered a pretty good explanation in 2017 around the time that "Vol. 2" was in theaters. Taking to his personal Facebook page, the filmmaker laid out how Groot's aging process actually works within the MCU.

"Like dogs, who grow at a different rate than humans, and spend a different percentage of their lives in adolescence than humans do, Groot and Humans do not grow at some exact exchange rate. So, although two months seems to be about two years (as Baby Groot seems to behave roughly like a two year old), it is not fair to assume that every month is a year to Groot. He has an alien biology and ages in a completely different way than a human being. Different aspects of his growth may take longer or shorter than a human's."

So there we have it! "Infinity War" Groot could easily be the equivalent of say, a 12-year-old, while the 2014 Groot could have been more akin to a 19-year-old, even if the human math doesn't exactly line up.