James Gunn Doesn't Think Groot Survived His Death In Guardians Of The Galaxy

At the end of the 2014 sci-fi comedy "Guardians of the Galaxy," the titular guardians are trapped on board a crashing starship after a vicious space battle with the blue-skinned baddie Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace). As the ship plummets to the surface of a nearby planet, the sentient humanoid tree Groot (Vin Diesel) sprouts extra limbs and leaves, wrapping them around his teammates. Previously in the employ of the crass and selfish Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), Groot has come to like his teammates and is willing to sacrifice his own life to protect them. When the starship crashes, Groot's protective tree layer shields everyone from death, but he burns up in the process. 

Luckily, since Groot is a tree, Rocket is able to salvage one of his seeds and plant it in a flowerpot. Groot soon begins growing back as a little chibi-faced sapling. Groot also appears — in various forms of childhood, teenhood, and young adulthood — over the course of three "Guardians of the Galaxy" follow-up, and in multiple "Avengers" team-up movies. Diesel continued to voice Groot throughout, although his voice was distorted for the Baby version of the character. Groot was last seen about to slaughter a herd of animals in "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3." 

Recently, James Gunn, writer/director of "Guardians of the Galaxy," clarified something about Groot. It seems that the Groot who died in the 2014 "Guardians" remained dead, and that the Groot audiences saw growing out of the flower pot was a new character entirely. One can hear Gunn's explanation on the audio commentary for "Vol. 3," now available on Disney+. The first Groot, it seems, only appeared in one film.

For many, of course, this is not new. Gunn once said in a now-deleted Tweet from 2018 that Baby Groot, as he appeared in "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2" was not a resurrected Groot, but should be viewed as Groot's son. The issue was likely confused because both characters had the same name, were played by the same actor, still only spoke one line of dialogue ("I am Groot"), and had pretty much the same personality. Baby Groot was a new character, but not in any way that one might notice. 

On the "Vol. 3" commentary, Gunn reiterated: 

"Here we see Groot reconstituting himself. He's growing back throughout the movie. Groot, of course, is now Young-Adult Groot. Sometimes we call him 'Swole Groot.' He is Baby Groot, uh, in a youthful adult state. And I think we start to see here really that this Groot is not the same Groot from the first movie. Many people believe that the first Groot was just reborn in this new shape. Um, that is not the case. This is a totally different Groot than the first Groot."

Totally different. 

Gunn then implied that he had written a complicated backstory for Groot, and had solid storytelling reasons for replacing Groot with an exact duplicate. In Marvel comics, Groot first appeared in 1960, although the version from Gunn's film was extrapolated from a 2006 reinvention of the character.

Gunn continued, saying:

"The first Groot sacrificed himself and died and gave birth to this Groot who is not a genetic replica of the first Groot. I have reasons in my mind why I think that's the case. I have a whole background for the character, but it is probably not ever going to be shared. But he is a different Groot."

The characters in "Guardians" all survived traumatic childhoods and/or horrid abuse before becoming space rangers, so one can see themes of rebirth throughout the films. For Groot, perhaps Gunn merely wanted to make rebirth literal.

Of course, death and rebirth are very, very, very common themes in the Marvel Comics universe. It's rare that you'll find a Marvel character who has died and stayed dead permanently. Indeed, Groot was one of the many characters who was killed by the genocidal Thanos at the end of "Avengers: Infinity War." As is well known by a broad pop audience, that genocide was undone in the 2019 ultra-blockbuster "Avengers: Endgame," wherein the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) willed the dead back into existence. One can assume that the Groot resurrected by the Hulk was the same Groot that died in "Infinity War," and not a new version like in "Guardians, Vol. 2." 

As of this writing, there are no plans to make another film starring Groot, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe is more or less contracting into something less significant than it once was. Time will tell if we'll see Groot, or a duplicate of him, in the future.