'Guardians of the Galaxy' Character Groot Inspired by Jesus?
Groot, a walking and talking tree character from the 2014 blockbuster hit "Guardians of the Galaxy," was inspired by Jesus Christ.
The film's writer and director James Gunn took to his Facebook to reveal a screenshot of Groot acting as Jesus in a recreated image of Leonardo da Vinci's famed "The Last Supper" painting. Groot is pictured surrounded by twelve other characters from the film, before sacrificing himself for his friends in the movie.
Although the scene was not included in the final cut of the film nor any extra scenes for the DVD release, Gunn decided to reveal it to fans.
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"Groot's Last Supper. This was a shot from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 that got cut from the movie and was never finished," Gunn told fans. "The great artists over at Framestore finished a frame and just gave it to me as a gift. Thanks, guys!"
Gunn, who often responds to his fans' questions and comments on social media, pointed out that Groot seemed to form a cross when he died after one viewer noted the tree character's ability to do so.
"If you watch the end of the movie you'll see that as well," Gunn commented. "An Easter egg no one has seemed to notice (no not the one I've been talking about)."
While some questioned if his deleted last supper scene was taken out because it could be deemed as blasphemous, Gunn assured people that was not the case.
"This scene wasn't cut because anyone thought it was blasphemous, it was just a slow moment in the wrong place in the film," he wrote.
While Gunn and his cast are working on "Guardians of the Galaxy 2," scheduled for a May 2017 release, the film's main character Star-Lord, played by Christian Pratt, has been vocal about his own Christian faith over the years.
Since 2014, Pratt's fame has skyrocketed with leading roles in "Guardians of the Galaxy," and "The Lego Movie." Before the fame, the actor, who has also appeared in "Zero Dark Thirty" and the television comedy "Parks and Recreation," had a godly encounter when he was living in Hawaii.
Pratt, 36, recalled not being old enough to drink alcohol at the time, and admitted that he and his friend got somebody to buy them alcohol before a man stopped to evangelize to them.
"This guy came by and was like, 'What are you doing tonight?' I was like, 'Oh, I dunno. I was just gonna wait out here, my friends are gonna buy me a bottle of Carlo Rossi and a sixer of Milwaukee's Best Ice," Pratt recalled to Esquire magazine. "So he's like, 'Will you fornicate tonight?' I was like, 'I hope so.' 'And drugs and drinking?' It's like, 'Most likely, yeah. Probably all three of those things. I mean, at least two of them, possibly all three.'"
However, the man had a message for Pratt.
"He was like, 'I stopped because Jesus told me to stop and talk to you. He said to tell you you're destined for great things,'" Pratt recalled. "My friends came out, and I was like, 'Hey, I'm gonna go with this guy.' I gave my soul to Jesus within, like, two days. I was stuffing envelopes for his organization, Jews for Jesus. I'm not even sure, at that age — I was nineteen years old — I knew what Jewish was."
Four weeks later, the actor was discovered, which he believes was a part of his destiny.
"I do believe in destiny…," he told Esquire. "But I didn't walk into 7-Eleven, buy a scratch ticket, scratch it off, and star in Guardians of the Galaxy."
