The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special trailer is here to remind you that while Halloween and Spooky Season are ubiquitous right now, the holiday season is fast approaching. And just like Werewolf By Night gave us a Halloween special, Star-Lord and the other Guardians are giving us some holiday cheer as well.
The cynics and Scrooges out there may be saying “bah, humbug” and declaring that this just exists to keep people subscribed to Disney Plus (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever may be Marvel’s December drop, but that’s not confirmed). But we’re sure that many others just felt their heart grow three sizes watching this clip.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special looks to remind us about Star-Lord’s blues and offer a simple holiday story enhanced by an unexpected (and now already-revealed) cameo. So, let’s break down everything we know about the MCU project.
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special trailer
Star-Lord’s spending the holiday season alone (well, without Gamora, at least), and that’s got him visibly in the dumps. But nobody would have known that until Kraglin explained the Earth calendar to the rest of the Guardians.
While Nebula’s a mean one, and passes on the notion of caring about the holidays, Drax and Mantis decide they need to cheer Quill up with the ultimate gift. This sends them to the last person you’d expect — and we don’t want to spoil it, so hit ‘play’ above to watch.
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special release date
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special comes out on November 25, 2022 on Disney Plus. And, yes, for those of you looking at the calendar, that means it’s after Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — the upcoming Marvel movie that we thought was the end of Phase 4. James Gunn (opens in new tab) clarified online that this special is “the epilogue of Phase 4.”
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special cast
When it comes to the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special cast, we have one question: will we see Zoe Saldaña play Gamora? The whole story of the special is spurred by the fact that she’s not around, so you’d think the answer is “no.”
That said, Marvel’s own site (in a post about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 starting production) basically spoiled that already, saying “Returning cast members for the latest Guardians of the Galaxy movie include Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, and Sean Gunn, who will next be seen in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, coming Holiday 2022!”
That said, she may be appearing in some sort of flashback — or not at all. In the blog post announcing the new trailer, Saldaña’s name was not listed, but Michael Rooker’s was. And we know that his character, Yondu, is dead.
The band The Old 97’s will also appear.
- Chris Pratt as Peter Quill aka Star-Lord
- Pom Klementieff as Mantis
- Dave Bautista as Drax
- Karen Gillan as Nebula
- Sean Gunn as Kraglin Obfonteri
- Maria Bakalova as Cosmo the Spacedog
- Bradley Cooper as Rocket
- Vin Diesel as Groot
- Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta
- Kevin Bacon as Kevin Bacon
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special running time
Gunn (opens in new tab) also said the ‘special’ will run “Around 40 minutes,” confirming it’s neither a movie, nor a short.
