Having appeared in 22 sequels or spin-offs already (with more on the way), Vin Diesel must be salivating at the merest tease of another

It doesn’t matter how much you love sequels or franchises, there’s not a chance in hell you love them anywhere near as much as Vin Diesel, with the actor and producer building his entire career around a small handful of characters that he plays over and over again.

Thanks almost entirely to Dominic Toretto, Xander Cage, Richard B. Riddick, and Groot, the noted enemy of any item of clothing containing sleeves has racked up no less than 22 appearances in various sequels, spin-offs, and animated offshoots hailing from the Fast & Furious, xXx, Pitch Black, and Marvel Cinematic Universe sagas, and we’re being generous by not even including his video game back catalogue.

As a result, I Am Groot director Kirsten Lepore teasing to Collider that she’d be open to a feature-length adventure for everyone’s favorite scene-stealing sentient tree will no doubt have Diesel salivating at the mere prospect, because the evidence is stacked sky high that if you’ve got an ongoing property with his name attached, he’ll jump at the chance and seize it with both hands.

“I think doing a longer adventure would also be fun. Playing with Groot in any capacity is always a joy because he’s such a great and established character. Honestly, you can really drop him into any scenario and he’s just so fun to watch. It was easy to write these because he’s so rich in what he gives you already.”

That’s no guarantee I Am Groot will get the full-blown movie treatment, but it can’t exactly be discounted, either. After all, with James Gunn out of the picture, you’d imagine Marvel will do anything in its power to continue the Guardians of the Galaxy mythos without stepping on his toes, and a tiny piece of foliage’s ongoing antics is an apt way of going about it.