Actor Vin Diesel has been playing coy about his possibly playing a role in a Marvel Studios film. You will recall back in late June he dropped a note on his Facebook page about being called in for a meeting and not knowing what for. We all speculated that he could be cast as Namor or Ant-Man or Vision or Thanos. When asked during Comic-Con for an update, all he would say is that we would get “some very big news coming at the end of this month.” Well, the end of that month (July) came and went and we got nothing. Then yesterday’s D23 presentation on upcoming Marvel movies came and went and we again heard nothing more on Diesel’s role in the Avengers franchise. So, when the heck are we going to get an announcement?
The answer to that question is still unknown, but we did get yet another tease today from Diesel himself, once again via his Facebook page. And it’s the sort of hint that is either a total red herring or it’s a direct yet unstated revelation. Diesel posted a picture of Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, implying that he’ll be voicing the non-human character. That’s really exciting for anyone who prefers their Diesel roles heard but not seen ‐ a la the title robot in The Iron Giant. We’ll not only have to wait to hear official confirmation on this from the people at Disney, but we’re now also curious if the giant tree-like creature will employ Diesel for any motion-capture, especially in the face. Just imagine a computer-generated Dominic Toretto with branches coming out of his head.
Maybe the studio is waiting until it also has a voice attached for Rocket Raccoon, the other member of the Guardians of the Galaxy team that will be computer-animated. Apparently that voice is expected to come from someone even bigger than Diesel, too. Still, with this very strong hint and response that feels more certain than speculative for us to report, it’d behoove the powers that be to respond to the “rumor” soon. The live-action parts of the film are currently in production with the more humanoid (and actual human) characters being played by Chris Pratt, Lee Pace, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close and more, and the highly anticipated release will hit theaters on August 1, 2014.
