Guardians of the Galaxy was the smash hit of the 2014 summer blockbuster season, soon becoming Marvel's third highest-grossing film. The film's characters were a bunch of nobodies, only familiar to comic book superfans (even Stan Lee wasn't sure who they were). But now Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot are among Marvel's most profitable heroes.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 won't release until 2017, but in the meantime, director James Gunn continues to discuss his plans for the sequel. Recently, he revealed it won't adapt a story from the comics but would instead be an original story of his making. Gunn has also shared that Yondu and his Ravagers will return and that the identity of Peter Quill's father will come to light.

Most recently Gunn was on Doug Love Movies, where he shared some new information regarding the first Guardians. On the podcast, the director was talking about the mid-credits scene with dancing baby Groot and Drax. Set to the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back," the scene was an immediate hit and has even gone on to inspire dancing baby Groot merchandise.

But there's a darker side to this scene, and Gunn explains there was a very specific reason why baby Groot didn't want to be seen dancing by Drax:

"There was actually a scene that we cut from the movie where big Groot was dancing to 'Livin’ Thing' by ELO, and it wasn’t such an elaborate dance. It was more that he was just moving up and down like this, and Drax was dismissive and gave him this look like he was a loser when he did that.

"Dancing is ludicrous to Drax. I don’t think he understands it. If Drax owned a town, if he was a mayor, the first law would be no dancing. But yeah, so at the end of the movie, little baby Groot didn’t want to get caught dancing, because he would kill him."

Yikes! That would have definitely driven home the point that for as charming and likable as the Guardians appear, they are still criminals, some even confessed murderers. But somehow, it's hard to imagine the scene would have played for laughs quite as well if the audience were in fear for baby Groot's life.

This little nugget of info may not be all that revelatory, but it does bring into question something Gunn has stated before. Earlier, Gunn implied that the baby Groot at the end of the film may not actually be Groot, but his offspring, saying: “Well, who says baby Groot is Groot and not Groot’s son?

But if this baby version of Groot was to have remembered something that happened previously to Groot, then that would mean he has the original Groot's memories. So whether he's an exact copy of Groot or not, if he retains Groot's memories, he might as be the same Groot.

What do you think? Was the baby Groot seen getting his groove on at the end of Guardians the original Groot, or his progeny? Drop us a line in the comments below!

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will be in theaters May 5th, 2017.

Source: Doug Loves Movies (via ComicBook.com)