Known as the face of the rip-roaring Fast & Furious franchise and celebrated for his performances in hits like The Iron Giant, Pitch Black, XXX, and The Chronicles of Riddick, Vin Diesel continued establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars thanks to his voice work in the blockbuster superhero series Guardians of the Galaxy. The lovable, tree-like humanoid Groot captured the hearts of audiences and kept them endlessly entertained with his three-word catchphrase, “I am Groot,” stealing every scene he was in and becoming a beloved character in the MCU.
Diesel fans may be surprised to learn that the actor nearly joined the Marvel franchise over a decade prior to appearing in the James Gunn hit, as he was in the running for both the role of Matt Murdock in 2003’s Daredevil and as the voice of the artificial intelligence Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Let’s take a look back at Diesel’s Marvel journey and explore how losing out on the projects proved to be a blessing in disguise.
Diesel Was Approached To Tackle the Superhero Role in ‘Daredevil’
Universal Pictures
Back in the early 2000s, Vin Diesel was emerging as a bona fide action hero thanks to his performances in The Fast and the Furious and XXX. When director Mark Steven Johnson first began working on his big-screen adaptation of Daredevil in 2001, Diesel became a top contender for the role of the blind lawyer-turned-crime-fighting vigilante. Before Ben Affleck was eventually cast as the justice-seeking superhero, Diesel and other famous faces like Matt Damon, Edward Norton, and Guy Pearce were being eyed to star.
Diesel ended up passing on the project in order to headline two other films: The Chronicles of Riddick, a sequel to his 2000 sci-fi spectacle Pitch Black, and the aforementioned XXX. During this time, he was working on getting XXX off the ground and was focused on creating an action franchise based on the fearless Cage, with the actor being paid $10 million to star in the action flick while also performing much of his own daring stunts. Though The Chronicles of Riddick proved to be underwhelming at the box office, XXX was a massive hit and grossed over $277 million on a budget of $88.3 million, spawning two exciting follow-up films.
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The decision to pass on playing the iconic Marvel character was certainly a risky choice for Diesel, as there was a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding the project, and portraying a superhero would have likely made him an even bigger household name. However, not only was XXX a financial success, but it also attracted a passionate fan base of fellow adrenaline junkies who loved seeing the movie star push the limits and perform electrifying stunt work. In an interview with MTV, Diesel later explained why he turned down Daredevil, saying that he wanted to leave his own unique mark in the superhero genre and follow his own action path.
Patience Was a Virtue For Diesel’s Marvel Journey
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Diesel opting out of starring in Daredevil was a wise choice, because even though the 2003 adaptation earned $179.2 million during its theatrical run, it left audiences wanting more and became a critical dud, receiving just a 43% Rotten Tomatoes score and an even worse 35% Popcornmeter score from fans. Affleck himself has since expressed his disdain for the film and has publicly disowned it, calling it “kinda silly” and declaring, “I hate Daredevil so much” in 2018. The superhero was finally given the justice he deserved with the acclaimed Netflix series starring Charlie Cox, a role he reprised in the MCU and in the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again.
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Coincidentally, Diesel was also approached by Marvel to potentially provide the voice of the powerful A.I. villain Ultron in (you guessed it) Avengers: Age of Ultron, though the diabolical character was ultimately voiced by Emmy-winner James Spader in the 2015 film and upcoming Disney+ series Vision Quest. Diesel had teased his meeting with the studio in June of that year, writing in a Facebook post: “Marvel has requested a meeting… no idea what for… haha, you probably know better than me.”
The sit-down may not have resulted in Diesel signing on as Ultron, but it did pave the way for him to portray the beloved Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy, a trilogy that would go on to earn over a whopping $2.4 billion worldwide between 2014 and 2023. Diesel was at first intimidated by the limited words Groot said, calling it “the most challenging thing to ask an actor to do.” Franchise director James Gunn commended Diesel’s approach to the character and his impressive delivery, saying upon the first film’s release:
“The ways in which Vin Diesel says, ‘I am Groot,’ I am astounded. All of the ‘I am Groots’ that were earlier voices didn’t sound very good at all … Vin came in and in one day, laid down all these ‘I am Groot’ tracks, and he’s a perfectionist…It was amazing when we first put that voice in there how much the character changed and how much he influenced the character.”
Stream Guardians of the Galaxy on Disney+.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Release Date
August 1, 2014
Runtime
121 minutes
Director
James Gunn
Writers
Nicole Perlman, James Gunn