By far the most loved character in the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' franchise is Groot, voiced by the indomitable Vin Diesel. There's an innocence to this character that strikes a chord will all who engage in the movies, and there's almost nothing about him that Vin doesn't adore.

Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper lend their voices to 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper lend their voices to 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'

For those who don't know, Groot is essentially a friendly, anthropomorphic, monosyllabic tree, who communicates using only three words: 'I', 'Am' and 'Groot' (exclusively in that order). In the first movie it seemed that Rocket was the only one who really understood him, but by 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' it seems all his new friends have connected with his unique personality.

'I loved the gentle giant aspect of Groot', Vin Diesel explains. 'I loved how enigmatic the character is. He's been labelled the most interesting character in the Marvel Universe in some ways because he's so unique and so different. I loved the connection to Earth and the connection to nature and that this character's a mass of nature.'

Watch the trailer for 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' here:

'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' continues on from events in the first movie, which ended with Groot sacrificing himself to save his friends. Being a tree though, it's not so easy to kill him, and a small twig from his body survives and becomes 'Baby Groot'. Thereby setting the ball rolling for the most interesting character arc of the whole Marvel Universe.

Vin and Bradley play Groot and Rocket respectivelyVin and Bradley play Groot and Rocket respectively

'Just to be a character that can regenerate is already cool, but to be able to chart that over multiple pictures is super cool', Vin says. 'I don't think we ever saw the fully-fledged Groot. I think the Groot that we saw in the first film was the Groot that came out of college. I don't know if we've really seen the full-blown Groot yet. But to see this resurrection, this character regenerate itself and go through the various stages of development is fun for us to watch as an audience.'

More: Read our review of 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'

'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' is out on May 5th 2017.