Baby Groot is Not a Marketing Ploy, According to James Gunn

When Baby Groot broke the internet with the release of the teaser trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, some people were cynical about the character. They claimed the character was a marketing stunt by Disney to sell more merchandise, but director James Gunn spoke out against these notions. When responding to a fan on Twitter, Gunn said that he’s “…sure some people think that but for [Gunn] keeping him Baby Groot throughout the film was the creative change that opened the film up for [Gunn]”. In a surprising twist, Gunn expressed initial concern that Disney would accept the idea of Baby Groot and instead “buy in on Ego the Living Planet”. Because of Groot’s popularity from the first film, Gunn thought the studio would want to bring back the same incarnation of Groot and allow a lot of time to pass between the films. For Gunn, “Baby Groot has a lot to learn & [he] like[s] how he brought out new aspects of [their] other characters”. Luckily, Disney liked his idea and now they have one of the biggest teaser trailers of all time. For more details on the Baby Groot controversy, check out Gunn’s full repsonse on Facebook below:

Who cares if Baby Groot really is a marketing ploy? Fans of the franchise now get to see a tiny, seemingly innocent superhero take down a bad guy twice his size while the guy runs in fear. The choice to have this child-like version of Groot will definitely sell more merchandise, but now the cynics can rest assured that Baby Groot is not part of a scheme, but part of a better story and script.

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