We’ve known for months now that Vin Diesel (‘Riddick‘,’Fast & Furious 6’) was in talks about joining ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ as Groot. In fact right after the rumor, it was unoficially confirmed that he would be a part of the team not once but twice. Hell, he was confirmed to still be working on the motion capture for the role back in October. However even with all of this “proof”, it’s only now that Marvel has finally confirmed he is voicing the character.

To celebrate the announcement, Marvel released this image of Diesel with a model of what his character is going to look like in the film! (assuming no size changes or near destruction are factored in, which at least one of will probably end up happening!)

The shot actually went up prior to the announcement thanks to a tweet from James Gunn (‘Slither’,’Dawn of the Dead’).

Thankfully Marvel made sure to finalize things shortly after with this press release:

The star of the ‘Fast and the Furious’ and Riddick franchises will lend his voice to Groot in Marvel’s live-action ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ rounding out the team that includes Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Drax (Dave Bautista).

While none of this is really news (as we’ve all been given so many hints to it at this point), it’s now official. The great part of the announcement is that shot of Groot’s head. With Diesel only lending his voice to the film and his only dialogue being “I AM GROOT!” done in a variety of different inflections, this still doesn’t rule out seeing him take on another role in a future Marvel film.

If Diesel does take on a different character down the line, who would you like to see him play? Would you rather see him as an Earthbound hero or someone out from the cosmos? Share your thoughts below!

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ starring Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Lee Pace, Glenn Close, John C. Reilly, Karen Gillan, Benicio Del Toro, and Michael Rooker blasts off on August 1st, 2014.

Source: Marvel