‘Guardians of the Galaxy’: All the Easter Eggs and References from Marvel’s ‘Happy Holiday Special’

‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Happy Holidays Special’ has just premiered on Disney+, the new adventure of the cosmic group that debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2014. The project is not a film or a series, but a ‘special presentation’ , that’s what Marvel Studios calls it, about 40 minutes. As in both Guardians of the Galaxy films, James Gunn takes back directing and screenplay control to bring us another team-up story, this time with a Christmas theme. The plot of the special revolves around a visit that Mantis and Drax make to Earth to give a Christmas present to Peter Quill, who is depressed over Gamora’s departure. ‘Happy Holidays’, a project full of fun and heart, something usual in Gunn’s works, has left us a good amount of details and very interesting Easter eggs which we will talk about now. Let’s see how many you’ve seen and how many you’ve missed!

Warning, SPOILERS!

*From here, spoilers for “Guardians of the Galaxy: Happy Holidays Special”. Don’t read on if you haven’t seen it!

The Guardians, owners of Wisdom

The Wisdom system, a skull of an ancient celestial, was introduced to us in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and as indicated by Gamora and as we saw in the film, it was a kind of lawless place that functioned as a black market and brought together some of the most undesirable beings in the galaxy. The planet used to belong to The Collector, but in the special they reveal the new owners are now the Guardians. Following the takeover, Sapenicial is receiving renovations by Quill and company to move it from the seedy place it was before.

Cosmo, the dog with powers, new Guardian

Cosmo, Marvel’s space dog with telekinetic powers, made his MCU debut in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ as part of The Collector’s menagerie of creatures. In “Happy Holidays” we have the opportunity to see more about the character, who is a new member of the Guardians of the Galaxy and has a special unit that allows him to speak. He does it in a Russian accent, this isn’t just a quirk of the script, it’s because in the comics Cosmo was a test animal for the Soviet space program who got his powers by being hit by cosmic rays on a mission. Cosmo will be present again in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and will be more important than we think, since the character will serve as a support to finally reveal the origin of Rocket. It would not be strange to find out that both he and Cosmo have been subjected to some experiments by the High Evolutionary, a character who will be the villain of ‘Guardians 3’ played by Chukwudi Iwuji (‘The Peacemaker’).

Yes, Santa has super powers.

The Christmas song played by an alien band at the beginning of the special was written by someone who has never experienced Christmas, so it doesn’t look like some of what we know about the holiday. In some things it is wrong, but it hits the mark in a very curious thing which is a reference to the comics. The phrase “Santa Claus has epic super powers” it is very accurate, therefore Santa Claus exists in Marvel comics and is a character who, no more, no less, is a very powerful mutant, so he has epic powers. Among these are his superhuman physical abilities, immortality, telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation, time manipulation, gravity, and matter at the molecular level. In the cartoons the character has not always been good, several times he has been under demonic control or a symbiote that has turned him into a threat. Did you know Santa battled a drunk, depressed, malnourished Deadpool?

Mantis is Quill’s sister.

One of the big surprises of the special is the reveal of the relationship Mantis and Star Lord share, henceforth sister and brother. It’s a change that makes a lot of sense if we take into account what was explained in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”, where they explained to us that Ego (Quill’s father) went from planet to planet fathering children with the intention of one of them sharing his power and conquering the universe together. As we also reveal in a scene where we see thousands of skeletons of his children, he kills those who are not useful to his goal. It stands to reason that Mantis remained alive despite not being worth the effort to conquer, since his empathic powers were very useful to him. The revelation that Mantis and Star Lord are brothers is nice because it means that Quill, who thought she asked all of his blood family for him, still has someone by his side. And it’s funny to think that Ego was defeated by two of his sons, not just by one as previously thought.

Gamora is still missing

The Gamora we met in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ who ended up having a relationship with Quill died in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ as Thanos’ sacrifice to get the soul stone. In “Avengers: Endgame”, Thanos’ fleet from the past travels to the present, causing a Gamora to be found again in this timeline. But this version hasn’t yet experienced her journey with the Guardians, so to her, as difficult as it is, neither Quill nor the rest of the group mean anything now. In “Endgame”, Star Lord tries to explain everything that happened, but Gamora rejects him and goes his own way. Until now we know nothing about her, it will be very interesting to see how ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ deals with Gamora’s relationship with the rest of the characters.

WTF! Bucky’s arm!

At the end of the special, when the presents are being distributed among the Guardians, Nebula gives hers to Rocket. It is none other than the vibranium arm of Bucky, The Winter Soldier. How did Nebula get it? I have no idea, hopefully we will have an answer one day. The scene is even funnier if we consider that in “Infinity War”, Rocket asks Bucky if his arm is for sale. She was rejected by him, but years later her dream came true.

Reference to Kingo

When Mantis and Drax travel to Hollywood, a poster is briefly seen announcing a movie featuring Kingo, a character not introduced in “Eternals” who was a movie star. How will your new film do at the box office? We do not know, what we do know is that he himself will not be present at the premiere, we remember that he was kidnapped by the celestial Arishem at the end of ‘Eternals’.

‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and ‘Transformers’ canon in the MCU

Among the different cosplayers we see in Hollywood there is one disguised as a transformer and another as Jack Sparrow, who makes these imaginary universes exist within another imaginary universe. Recall that in “Eternals” we saw that Festus’ son and her husband have a Star Wars comic and, moreover, in this same special Kevin Bacon says “I am Batman”, referring to the famous DC character. As if MCU denizens don’t have enough entertainment to live in a world of superheroes, they can also enjoy DC, ‘Star Wars’, ‘Transformers’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. What will they think of Cavill’s return as Superman? What about Disney’s Star Wars trilogy?

Is Kevin Bacon Batman in the MCU?

Between Kevin Bacon’s talk in the MCU since ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and how much Quill loves him, the actor’s appearance in ‘Happy Holidays’ is very special. In the scene where he’s on the ship with Drax and Mantis on the way to Wisdom they tell him to act like a hero, so he starts saying lines from one of his movies about him, but he also says “I’m batman”. Could it be that in the MCU one of the performers of this vigilante was Kevin Bacon?

the dance battle

In “Guardians of the Galaxy,” Peter Quill explained to the rest of the group that Kevin Bacon freed a people by dancing, referencing “Footloose,” a film in which dancing was forbidden. In one scene from the special, Kraglin tells Bacon that Quill saved the galaxy by dancing, and that’s part of it. “In Guardians of the Galaxy” Ronan is about to destroy everyone, but Quill starts dancing and the villain gets confused. “I miss you bitch with legs”. Quill says just before Rocket fires the villain’s gun so that the Power Stone falls into the hands of the Guardians. So yeah, we could say that Quill’s dancing, an idea he surely came to while watching Kevin Bacon in ‘Footloose,’ saved the galaxy by dancing. I’m sure the actor is proud.

Groot’s physical change

The last time we saw Groot was in “Thor: Love and Thunder” as a skinny teenager. Now it looks like he’s been on steroids, because he still has a youthful face, but he’s got some pretty enviable muscles. The option of steroids is not excluded because from ‘Love And Thunder’ to ‘Happy Holidays’ there is only a few months difference (July-November), little time for such a physical change. Another option is for the special to have a time jump and be further away from “Thor 4”, thus giving Groot time to hit the gym. Be that as it may, this physical change could be part of the process to see a more adult Groot again than ever, something we haven’t seen since “Guardians of the Galaxy”.

Quill’s guns

In the animated scene responsible for closing the special, they tell us that Quill’s mythical and fantastic guns were given to him by Yondu, his adoptive father, for Christmas. It’s quite an origin considering the development and ending they give to Yondu and Quill’s father-son relationship in the movies. Inevitable to remember the beautiful scene of Yondu’s funeral in ‘Vol.2’.