When a character spends three movies saying “I am Groot” over and over again, you wouldn’t think there’d be any uncertainty about what his name is, but on the basis of one line from Avengers: Infinity War, a compelling case is made that we’ve all been getting the Guardians of the Galaxy star’s name wrong this whole time.
Reddit user CheMc starts off their theory by observing how almost no one in the MCU seems to understand what Groot is saying, with most characters simply gathering the gist of his meaning from context and tone. A rare exception, however, is Thor, who’s well versed in the language of Groot’s species, and it just so happens that when the God of Thunder introduces his new friend to Steve Rogers, he doesn’t refer to him as “Groot,” but rather “tree.”
From here, the conclusion is drawn that “Tree” might actually be Groot’s real name, and while the evidence remains thin for the idea, it’s still an intriguing enough suggestion that makes a certain degree of sense. After all, we know for a fact that when the Guardian says “I am Groot,” he’s usually trying to communicate something that’s completely unrelated to his own name, so why should we assume that this oft-repeated sentence is true in the first place?
At the same time, you could argue that if everyone is calling him “Groot,” his name, for all intents and purposes, might as well be “Groot.” Either way, Avengers: Infinity War left the character with much bigger problems than people getting his name wrong, but it sounds like Groot (or Tree, or whatever he’s called) will be making a return when Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26th, 2019.