The Guardians of the Galaxy movies are one of the MCU‘s most impressive achievements. Here were a group of characters that practically nobody had heard of in an extremely oddball adventure, which went on to become one of the studio’s most beloved and lucrative hits. Guardians of the Galaxy proved that Marvel didn’t need to rely on existing knowledge of their characters to make a smashing success, and the team went on to play a major part in Infinity War and Endgame.
I doubt Kevin Feige would change much about those movies, but one decision he might reconsider is casting Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot. A report by CheatSheet.com claims that Disney and Marvel “wasted millions” on Diesel, who only has to deliver one line in a variety of ways. The fact that I usually forget that he plays Groot may be a good indication that they could have gotten someone else in (though to be fair, he does a very good job with that one line).
One caveat was that I’d assumed that Diesel wasn’t getting paid a lot to do it, perhaps doing the line for a nominal fee in order to build a relationship with Marvel Studios. But while the company don’t make public how much they’re paying their actors, it’s possible to get a rough idea from other sources. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy was the only film Diesel appeared in during 2014, a year in which he earned $23 million. Some of that will be from other projects and residuals, but it’s safe to assume that he was paid at minimum $10 million to say “I am Groot” about 10-15 times in different ways.
Is that good value for money? I guess you’d have to ask Kevin Feige how he feels. However, considering that there’s never been any gossip about replacing Diesel with a cheaper voice actor in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (and in fact, they may be expanding his role) they may think he’s well worth the money.
What do you think, though? Could the MCU‘s Groot be done the same by someone else? Let us know down below.
