Sandwiched in between Secret Invasion and October’s Loki season two, there’s another Marvel Studios production on its way to Disney Plus. The second season of animated miniseries I Am Groot lands on Sep. 6, offering the return of everyone’s favorite infantilized sequoia. In the vast sea of the House of Ideas’ streaming content, however, this show has always flown somewhat under the radar, so it’s worth questioning how integral it is as a piece of the MCU.
As a collection of mostly dialogue-free slices of silent comedy, I Am Groot — whose first season debuted in August 2022 — is perhaps not an absolutely unmissable chapter in the ongoing Multiverse Saga, but that doesn’t automatically mean it’s not included in Marvel canon, right? Well, while that is true, its status in the Sacred Timeline is complicated at best, so we’re not entirely sure if it actually can be counted as part of the Guardians of the Galaxy’s epic arc.
So is I Am Groot planted in the MCU timeline or has it been uprooted from continuity? Let’s take a look.
When would I Am Groot be set in MCU canon?
At first glance, you might think the answer of whether I Am Groot is properly part of the MCU or not is obvious: it’s about Baby Groot, and the Flora Colossus was a young adult when we left him in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. However, the intention of the producers is that it actually fills perhaps the narrowest gap in all of the MCU.
According to Brad Winderbaum, all of I Am Groot is intended to slot somewhere in between the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the very first of its many post-credits scenes. As he told ComicBook.com:
“It’s a narrow window, right? It takes place actually between the end of Guardians 2 and before the tag scene in Guardians 2. So, it’s in this narrow window where Groot [is] in that kind of post toddler stage of development.”
In terms of viewing time for the audience, the gap IAG exploited is just a few minutes long, but in terms of the characters’ lives, it actually has a lot of time to play around. It’s unclear exactly how fast Groot ages, but we know it took him about four years to become the Teenage Groot showcased at the tail-end of the Infinity Saga and the beginning of the Multiverse Saga.
So, with each season of the series comprising five shorts that only equate to about 15 minutes of screentime in total, in theory there is potentially plenty more I Am Groot where these came from.
James Gunn doesn’t think I Am Groot is MCU canon
So if its placement in the timeline adds up, Vin Diesel’s back as Groot, Bradley Cooper cameod as Rocket in season one and even Jeffrey Wright’s the Watcher will show up in season two, what’s the problem? Well, the real sticking point with I Am Groot‘s canon status ironically rests with a man who is no longer part of the Marvel Studios canon himself, Mr. James Gunn.
While James Gunn served as an exec producer on season one, his commitments to DC Studios — following his official Marvel exit with Vol. 3 — mean that he has nothing to do with the new episodes. Instead the series is really the brainchild of showrunner Kirsten Lepore (Adventure Time). Even so, it’s still somewhat surprising that Gunn has admitted he doesn’t view the show as “necessarily” a piece of the overall puzzle.
When asked by a fan to clarify if it takes place before or after Vol. 2, Gunn replied: “They are animated shorts so not necessarily part of the Guardians saga.”
This isn’t the first time that Gunn has said something like this, with the filmmaker previously declaring that Disneyland’s Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout! ride is “in its own universe,” despite featuring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and the rest of the cast reprising their roles. Gunn isn’t so definitive in his comments about I Am Groot as his phrasing that it’s “not necessarily part of the Guardians saga” suggests he’s leaving it up the fans to decide if they include it in their headcanon or not.
In other words, if you want to base your belief about I Am Groot on Gunn’s stance, due to loyalty over his Guardians direction, then feel free. However, given that current Marvel employees have championed it as an MCU product, it seems the company line is that, yes, the show is canon.