'Guardians of the Galaxy' Director James Gunn Reprises the Groot Dance, Talks Deleted Stan Lee Cameo
Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn isn’t done with the Baby Groot dance and neither are the movie’s fans. Gunn appeared at Dragon Con in Atlanta over the weekend and led a crowd of attendees (some in costume) in an arm-waving homage to the indelible scene from the end of the summer blockbuster.
It wasn’t Gunn’s only turn around the convention hall: He also danced with an adorable cosplay Baby Groot. It was a very convincing rendition, which makes sense since Gunn told Yahoo Movies that Groot’s grooves were entirely based on his own personal moves. “I was too embarrassed for anyone to be there, so I made everyone leave the room and I set up a camera and I videotaped myself dancing,” he said. “Then I sent the video to the animators and had them animate over that. I begged them not to leak the video! Two of my closest friends came to an early screening and said ‘Hey, I recognize those moves! That’s you dancing isn’t it?!’”
When he wasn’t shaking his booty, Gunn talked briefly about the sequel, particularly his plans to “steer clear” of other earthling characters except for Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill. He also discussed Guardians’ lack of a trademark cameo from Stan Lee. Gunn actually had devised a sequence for the 91-year-old Marvel icon. In the end, Lee’s scene was cut — but not because Disney vetoed it, as reports swirling around the Internet have been saying. Gunn set the record straight on Instagram today: “No one at Disney ever even saw the scene, and it was cut solely for creative reasons.”
He explained further: “In the original cut of the film, when the Guardians enter the Collector’s museum, Rocket looks over and sees Cosmo the dog in one display case, Quill looks over into another display case and is surprised by a tentacle slapping against the glass, and Groot looks over and sees, in another display case, Stan Lee. In one take, Stan Lee just slowly turns up his finger, flipping off Groot.”
Gunn shot the scene using a Lee double (photo above) with the plan to later get footage of Lee in the same lighting and digitally replace the double’s head. Gunn tried to keep it in the film, but “a couple of the guys at Marvel thought Stan Lee in a case was too broad of a joke in general, and that it took the audience out of the movie.”
Since Gunn is keeping his distance from humans in the sequel, does that negate the possibility of a future Lee cameo? And will Groot/Gunn dance again? We’ll have to wait until 2017 to find out.
