James Gunn has moved on from Guardians of the Galaxy, but there is a strong chance that at least some of the characters he helped find a place in the MCU will be returning in the future. However, someone pushing for that return more than most is the member of the Guardians team who has the most grueling script of all the actors concerned. It seems that Vin Diesel believes he has a lot more ways to say “I am Groot” stored up, and he wants to use them to tell the story of Groot returning to Planet X…and will not stop pitching the idea.
Diesel has played Groot across the entire Marvel saga, appearing as an old version of the character in the original Guardians of the Galaxy, “Baby” Groot in Guardians 2, then “Adolescent” Groot, “Swole” Groot, and every other Groot you can think of in between. That’s a lot of Groot for anyone. But, after appearing as a much larger Groot in the post-credits scene of Guardians 3, surely this isn’t the last we have seen of the gentle giant. It won’t be if Diesel has his way. In an Instagram post he wrote:
“I was always fascinated by the origins of how the Hobbit came to be… the idea that it started as a story a father would tell his children around a campfire. As you know, I have been deep in development and writing on so many of the characters I have grown a bond with. Just recently, I read to my family, The Arbor King… the long-awaited story of Groot’s return to Planet X… There’s movies the world wants, my incredible fans want and of course the ones the kids want. We are Groot!”
Vin Diesel Has Several Big Franchise Movies in Development Hell
While his Marvel return seems almost certain in one project or another, Diesel has some other movies that should have been barreling along in production right now, but instead they have been continuously stalled, frustrating fans, and the actor himself.
Back in April Diesel teased his fourth Riddick movie might finally be getting itself together, sharing an update on the long-delayed new sequel, Riddick: Furya. At the time he wrote:
“Riddick finally returns to his home world, a place he barely remembers and one he fears might be left in ruins. But there he finds other Furyans fighting for their existence against a new monster. And some of these Furyans are more like Riddick than he could have ever imagined.”
However, since then, there have been no further updates on the first Riddick movie since 2013, which is set to be written and directed by franchise veteran David Twohy with creators Jim and Ken Wheat also on board. Diesel will take a producer role this time around as well as starring…if it ever gets going.
Then, of course, there is the Fast and Furious saga. After blowing away the box office with the seventh and eighth installments, everyone involved believed that F9 and Fast X would be mighty box office juggernauts driven with ease by Diesel into the record books. However, Covid delays and directorial changes saw the budgets of both movies skyrocket, and when they underperformed in theaters, the breaks were quickly applied to Fast 11.
Diesel himself has aired his frustration over behind-the-scenes wrangling about the direction the next – and supposedly final – Fast movie will take, saying online that he “just wants to make a movie about family and street-racing.” While Riddick’s future is anything but certain, it is obvious that we will see Fast 11 make it into cinemas, although there could still be quite a wait. Maybe that will be for the best, as absence does make the heart grow fonder.
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