When Guardians of the Galaxy first came out a couple years back, it was a breath of fresh air in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The previous films that came before it were all sequels to Marvel’s Phase 1 films, and for a while, it almost seemed like the studio would simply iterate on what had come before it. With Guardians, it was clear that Marvel was ambitious enough to go off into completely different territory.

Even cooler was that they allowed the film to have very thin connections to the rest of the MCU. Sure, they had Thanos in the movie (and, I suppose, an Infinity Stone), and in many ways he is the ultimate connection, but there’s no denying that the flick felt like it was off in its own little universe (no pun intended). The film’s sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 seems like it may have even fewer ties to the MCU proper than its predecessor. 

But those who were concerned that this band of misfits would never cross paths with the rest of our heroes need not worry, as actor Vin Diesel (the voice of Groot) has revealed via his Facebook page that the Guardians would show up in Avengers: Infinity War.

Here’s what he had to say (via io9):

“Next year you’ve got Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 coming and that whole concept started from you all saying ‘when are you gonna be in a Marvel movie?’

“And you remember the first picture after that Marvel meeting that I had where I was standing [with] the Avengers thing in the back – some of you can look up that picture…there was this old Avengers copy that was behind me inthat picture if you look back on my Facebook page you can find that.

“What’s gonna be surreal is that picture is going to come to pass because now the Guardians will be included in Avengers: Infinity War and that’s incredibly exciting. Incredibly exciting. Incredibly exciting and something that if you were a part of our page you knew before everybody.”

This doesn’t necessarily come as a huge surprise to those who have been following this stuff. It’s long been speculated that just about everyone would be in that film, but that’s never stopped Marvel Studios from trying to keep these secrets from the public. But too bad for them, Diesel loves to share things with his fans. I’m curious, more than anything, to see either him or Marvel try and backpedal from this one, but we’ll have to wait and see.

What do you think? Does this reveal from Diesel surprise you? Sound off down below!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters on May 5, 2017.

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RELATED: KEVIN FEIGE TEASES BABY GROOT IN GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2

SOURCE: Vin Diesel (via io9)