We're Grooting For You: James Gunn Confirms How 'Guardians' Post-Credits Sets Up 'Infinity War'

While James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 still (Star-)lords it over the MCU, fans of the outer space adventure are still talking about secret cameos, post-credit scenes, and where the franchise will go next. Rarely has a sci-fi film had such an impact on a franchise's continuing future, but now director James Gunn has revealed one more newsworthy tidbit of information ahead of next year's brawling Avengers: Infinity War.

A Tree-t For All

If you waded through the mass of post-credits scenes from this year's superhero sequel, one particularly funny moment saw an adolescent Groot — just don't call him teen. Growing from the uber-cute Baby Groot, this greasy, pimpled, tree was embracing a new chapter in his life and causing a headache for Star-Lord. It was presumed that this was our Green Giant making a leap to the future for Vol. 3, however, it now appears that the rest of the MCU will be going with him.

Speaking to CinemaBlend, Gunn revealed that the Groot post-credits scene takes place at the same time as #InfinityWar, and that the sulking shrub we met at the end of Vol. 2 is the one we glimpsed in the D23 footage:

“He's exactly the same. That’s exactly the Groot we designed for 'Infinity War.'"

So, it looks like it's goodbye Baby Groot and hello to breaking curfew and changing sticky sheets covered in sap for the foreseeable future.

Kevin Feige had always told us that the #GuardiansoftheGalaxy would have "evolved" by the time they took on Thanos. So, with four years passing between Guardians Vol. 2 and Infinity War, tweenage groot fits this timeline neatly. It also means that although Groot grows quicker than we do, there isn't some magic Miracle-Gro to help him skip an evolutionary stage ahead of that final form we keep being teased about.

Green Fingers

As for our tweenage tree, Gunn was hesitant to reveal too much on Groot's past, but promised that we should stick with the character to find out more:

“It’s complicated. I think you have to stick through future movies to find out exactly what the story of Groot is. I get a lot of questions, and the thing I say that bums people out more than anything else is that Baby Groot doesn't have the memories of Adult Groot. But it's complicated! His life is not like our lives... It's his aging, and Groots, where they come from and how they do their thing. It's pretty much worked out in my head, but we've only let out pieces of that.”

While it is particularly morbid that the Groot we came to love really did die at the end of the first Guardians film, it seems that he is living his life again. The roster of Guardians may change to possibly bring in some old blood, but at least the mention of Groot was plural with "future movies." Even if Star-Lord and Gamora set their sights on pastures new, Gunn suggests that #VinDiesel will continue getting paid a lot to say the same three words for a fair few years yet.

(Source: CinemaBlend)