Vin Diesel has spoken about his recent Facebook hints that he’s joining the cast of new marvel franchise Guardians of the Galaxy, potentially playing Groot. Although stopping short fo an official confirmation the Fast & Furious star has gone a long way to suggesting he will indeed providing the gruff voice of one of Marvel’s most unlikely heroes.

 “As an actor, not everything has to be the most obvious choice and sometimes, the best thing you can do — as far as Steven Spielberg and his advice — is to defy expectations. So if everybody thinks you’re going to go for this one thing and you flip it entirely and go for the strangest Marvel character, it’s interesting. And when something is interesting, it’s inspiring.”

Groot would certainly be an unlikely choice for the star, given that he’s a giant tree like alien who only communicates in the comics by repeatedly shouting his own name. Explaining his decision to post an image of the character to his Facebook page the star added:

“I get inspired by things. So if somebody sends me a book of conceptual art that’s the best character design work I’ve ever seen, I see that and I want to be a little cryptic and I want to say something positive.”

Whilst Marvel might usually be less inspired to see major casting news leaked by a potential star, the famously protective studio might also be happy to see Vin Diesel’s 45 million Facebook fans already excited about the prospect of the star joining their latest franchise.