‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Happy Holidays Special’ has a lot to tell us about the future of the gang.
Spoilers for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Happy Holidays Special’ below
Christmas has come early for Marvel fans as our favorite band of heroes, the Guardians of the Galaxy, are back on Disney+ with their Christmas special.
The hugely entertaining special is very much a standalone holiday romp in which Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) finally take center stage, heading to Earth to kidnap Kevin Bacon (real Kevin Bacon). ) as a Christmas present for Peter Quill (Chris Pratt).
However, as James Gunn teased before its premiere, the Christmas Special reveals several team changes ahead of the highly anticipated ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’, and there’s also a major reveal that could affect the third and (it’s assumed) last film in his saga.
However, to explain how the holiday special sets up part three, we need to get into some major spoilers, so don’t read any further if you haven’t seen the new special yet.
How the Christmas Special prepares ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’
The Christmas special takes place after we last saw the Guardians in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, and either since those events or before them, the team has gone through some changes. Nobody’s gone, but they’ve got a shiny new huge ship called Bowie, a new team member in the form of the telekinetic talking bitch Cosmo (voiced by Maria Bakalova) who we’ll instantly die for, and now they own Sapiential.
In ‘Thor: Love and Thunder,’ the Guardians still had the Benatar, so they clearly upgraded it in the time since that movie. Gunn has confirmed to a fan on Twitter that the ship still exists, so it’s not because it was destroyed.
As for Cosmo, it’s unclear when the dog became part of the team other than it was after his adventures with Thor. They could have also been living in Wisdom at the time of ‘Love and Thunder’, but no specific timeline is given other than Nebula (Karen Gillan) confirming that they bought the place from the Collector. Wisdom, let’s remember, was almost destroyed by Thanos in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and that’s why they’re rearranging it.
It’s unlikely we’ll get much more explanation on any of these elements in the third movie. Gunn explained that he used the Christmas Special as a “Trojan Horse” to include new elements that are important to Volume 3, avoiding the need to explain them in the third part.
Wisdom’s status as their base, Cosmo and even Kraglin (Sean Gunn) being a steadfast member of the Guardians now, may not seem all that important for the third movie. However, there is a bigger revelation that could have a role to play.
It is confirmed in the Christmas Special that Mantis and Peter are brother and sister, as Mantis’s father is also Ego (Kurt Russell). She had already told Drax the truth and finally tells Peter at the end of the special. Something he sweetly calls “the best Christmas present she could ever get.”
This reveal was originally part of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2’, but the scene was cut from the final cut of the film. In said sequel we were told that Ego found Mantis when she was just a larva and grew up on his planet. However, there was a scene where one of Ego’s love interests was Mantis’s mother, confirming Mantis’s familial connection to Peter.
Now that it’s been restored as canon in the MCU, it strengthens the overall theme of Gunn’s trilogy. The first was about finding your own family, something that was further explored in 2, where Peter chose his adoptive family instead of his actual father. If both movies have been, in one way or another, about Peter’s mother and father, it stands to reason that a key theme of the third is about Peter’s relationship with his newfound sister, Mantis, who is also his friend. royal family and part of his adoptive family.
And now, if we’re being totally honest, we’re worried about the fate of Mantis in the third installment. “I read that script with Pom Klementieff, who plays Mantis,” Gillan revealed in July 2021. “We read it together and we cried and laughed, but there were tears… It’s brilliant and emotional and funny and exciting. All those things you want “.
Mantis sacrificing herself to save her brother Peter? We can imagine it, but we’d be happier if he went the other way. Obviously, we wouldn’t accept any death, of course, but it’s the last Guardians movie with these characters, so all bets are off.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas special is now available on Disney+, while we remind you that ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ opens in theaters on May 5, 2023.
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
