Summary
- Vin Diesel’s run as the voice of Groot in the Marvel universe has hit a break in What If…? season 2, with Fred Tatasciore voicing the character in the first episode.
- Despite Diesel’s continuous presence in the MCU, his exclusion in What If…? is surprising, considering other Marvel actors have returned to voice their characters in different variants.
- The sexual assault allegations against Diesel are unlikely to be connected to his replacement in What If…?, as the episodes were completed before the allegations surfaced.
Vin Diesel has been the voice of Marvel’s Groot since his debut in Guardians of the Galaxy, but his unbroken run as the character comes to an end with another actor voicing the much-loved character in his appearance in What If…? season 2.
In the first episode of the new season, an alternative MCU storyline sees Nebula joining the Nova Corps, and Groot is naturally one of the supporting characters. However, as the end credits reveal, Marvel voice actor Fred Tatasciore provides the vocalizations for the character rather than Vin Diesel. This year, Vin Diesel played Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and the second season of the Disney+ series I Am Groot, bringing his appearance count to eight (not counting his appearing in the movie Ralph Breaks the Internet). The exclusion of Diesel is strange, considering his continuous presence in the MCU since 2014 and the fact that many other Marvel stalwarts such as Karen Gillan, Hayley Atwell, Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner are among the many to have returned to voice variants of their popular characters.
Recently, Diesel has been the subject of sexual assault allegations, but it is unlikely that this had any bearing on the decision, as work on What If…?’s episodes would have been completed before those allegations became public just before Christmas. It was reported on December 21 that Diesel was being sued by a former assistant for alleged sexual battery that took place while the actor was working on Fast Five back in 2010. Diesel has subsequently denied the claims and vowed to clear his name.
What If…? Finally Delivered a Resounding Hit for the MCU.
When the first season of What If…? arrived on Disney+ in 2021 it seemed to be a series of individual stories, linked only by the presence of The Watcher – a multiverse-spanning observer who “watches” over many universes. However, as the season headed towards its conclusion, the story began to see various threads of the previous stories converging in a way that brought the season to a barnstorming finale, and the creation of the Guardians of the Multiverse.
Season 2 kicked off on December 22, releasing new episodes daily with many surprises, familiar voices and, above all else, the MCU’s best reviews of the year. Surpassing Marvel Studios’ high point of the summer, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the series has gained an 87% Tomatometer score to make it the critics’ best reviewed Marvel project of the last year. In fact, What If…? has also surpassed every MCU movie and Disney+ series of 2022 except for Ms. Marvel and its near perfect 98% score.
With a few episodes of the season left, it is unlikely that What If…? will do anything to jeopardize its place as one of the highlights of Phase Four and Five of the MCU. As for the question whether Vin Diesel will be returning in future to voice Groot, that is a story from a different part of the multiverse that we will have to wait a little longer to find out.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
