The three ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ films work relatively independently, forming a fairly well-rounded story that can be followed without much knowledge of the rest of the MCU films and series. But to really understand everything that happens and is told in “Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3”, there are two exceptions here, without which some things in part 3 should be quite confusing.
First, there’s the Avengers double, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, in which Guardians member Gamora (Zoe Saldana) dies between the events of Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 and Guardians Of The Galaxy 3, and then an alternate version of hair from the past lands in the well-known present MCU (so we are now also dealing with this Gamora variant and not with the original character in “Volume 3”).
However, since most Guardians fans must have seen these two mega-successful MCU spectacles, and we’ve already dedicated a separate article to the Gamora story, we’d now like to focus more on the second exception, which is known to far fewer people: That “Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special“.
This is the Guardians Of The Galaxy holiday special
praying mantis (Pom Klementieff) is the sister of Peter (Chris Pratt)? A headline about actor Kevin Bacon being abducted by aliens? If you only know the “Guardians” and MCU movies, these bits of information built into “Guardians Of The Galaxy 3” can seem quite sudden and random. But these are by no means ideas that came out of nowhere, but rather Allusions to events and developments of said Holiday Special, which was released exclusively on the Disney+ streaming service on November 25, 2022.
This is about the Guardians who want to cheer up their leader Star-Lord, who was so depressed after Gamora’s death, with a very special present for Christmas on Earth. And what better way than to introduce him to a hero from his childhood in the ’80s? So Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis go to Earth to kidnap “Footloose” star Kevin Bacon, leading to all kinds of mayhem. And by the way, we also learn here that the living Planet Ego (Kurt Russell), of “Guardians Of The Galaxy 2” fame, was not only Peter’s father, but also Mantis’s, so the two are half-siblings.
Not important to the plot, but…
The ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special’ is perhaps less relevant to the overall plot of the ‘Guardians’ movies. Nevertheless, the events now factor into “Guardians Of The Galaxy 3”, as the said allusions show. Plus, they lend some extra weight to the otherwise rather neglected relationship between Peter and Mantis. Aside from that, the Holiday Special is just a nice opportunity to spend an extra 40 minutes with the popular outsider troupe, who are now at least saying goodbye to their well-known composition in “Volume 3”.
A special treat: not only are all the original stars involved here, but the mastermind of “Guardians”, James Gunn, is once again personally responsible for the screenplay and direction, as is the case with the cinematic adventures. It relies even more on comedy than usual, but towards the end it also offers a good portion of cozy holiday feelings that you can enjoy outside of Christmas. We therefore definitely recommend this fourth film in the series on Disney + to every Guardians fan.