James Gunn Endorses Groot As New Cleveland Guardians Mascot

[Animous]

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn is on board with Groot being the new mascot for the Major League Baseball team the Cleveland Guardians. Gunn's directorial work on the first two Guardians films in 2014 and 2017 successfully entrenched characters like Groot the talking tree into the lexicon of pop culture and viral online popularity. As a result, it was inevitable that Groot and other characters from the Guardians of the Galaxy were thrown in for discussions regarding the the overall rebranding for the Cleveland Guardians.

The Cleveland Guardians had previously been known as the Cleveland Indians since 1915. For decades, the team logo was a cartoon caricature called Chief Wahoo. After ongoing public outcry over the offensiveness of the logo and team name, Cleveland dropped the Chief Wahoo character from official branding and the team uniforms back in 2018. Now, this past week the Cleveland Indians have officially announced that they will be changing their team name to the Cleveland Guardians, effective upon the new baseball season in 2022. Although the new name was actually inspired by a series of statues called the Guardians of Traffic in Cleveland, Cleveland Guardians pitcher Josh Wolf had the clever idea that Groot should be the new team mascot.

RELATED:Guardians Of The Galaxy Fans Can Text Groot At This Number

Gunn already had the perfect response to the initial news of the name change, advocating for a Rocket Racoon inspired Cleveland Guardians team logo. Of course, Gunn has also responded to the newest calls for Groot to be the new team mascot. Check out Gunn's response to Wolf's mascot Groot idea, below.

Although the Cleveland Guardians are keeping the character Slider as their official mascot and a winged G fastball image as their new logo, it's great that Gunn wholeheartedly endorsed the fan-favorite Groot as a mascot idea. After the years of controversy surrounding the former name for the Cleveland Guardians, it's refreshing to see how the new team name is inspiring fun ideas for the mascot and logo. Fans disappointed that Groot won't actually be the new Cleveland Guardians mascot can still catch Baby Groot in the upcoming Disney Plus series, I Am Groot. 

It's a great testament to Gunn's work directing the first two Guardians of the Galaxy films that characters like Groot and Rocket have become just as famous and recognizable as other prominent MCU characters like Captain America, Thor, Black Widow and Iron Man. Gunn will take up the director's helm once more for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and according to Gunn himself, it will likely be Gunn's last time directing a Guardians of the Galaxy film. Regardless of what Gunn's Marvel future holds, his work on Guardians of the Galaxy has rightfully earned the film a spot as an iconic MCU property and as an influential movie in the pop-culture sphere as a whole

[Silent Watcher]

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