‘Guardians of the Galaxy’: James Gunn explains Groot’s new look and how the special connects with ‘Vol .3’

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is now available on Disney+. “Guardians of the Galaxy: Happy Holidays Special” takes Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) to Earth in search of the perfect Christmas present for Peter Quill (Chris Pratt). And they can’t think of anything else but trying to kidnap their earthly hero, Kevin Bacon.

In the special we meet all the current members of the band, including Groot, who between ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ and this special has given an impressive growth spurt and has become a real muscle man. James Gunn explained to a fan in Chirping What is hidden in this change of image compared to version 1.0 of the character: “Good, the young adult Groot, or “squashed Groot” as we call him, is getting bigger, both outward and upward. As you can see, he now has a different, more muscular physique (and more outgoing personality) than his father.”. He adds about his change in attitude: “Like many people (or people like creatures) he is much more positive as a young adult than he was as a grumpy teenager”. He also explained that this Groot was created “100% computerized thanks to the good guys at Framestore and Weta Digital”.

The special doesn’t specify how much time has passed since that battle in which they were separated from Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Mantis and Drax’s excursion to Earth, but it is also true that the alien tree has its own rhythms when it comes to dying .from one era to another. That’s very likely to be the case when we meet him again in theaters in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’, the team’s official farewell. Its premiere is set for May 5 next year.

What does the “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” special say?

James Gunn also explained how the special fits into the third Guardians cinematic adventure: “You’ll learn a lot about what the Guardians have done over the years. You’ll see how they live on Wisdom now. They have a new ship called the Bowie. They have a dog that is part of the group, who has telekinesis and is called Cosmo. And then there are some bigger lore pieces that are spoilers. In a sense, the ‘Happy Holidays Special’ was a Trojan horse for me, to introduce things that will be important in ‘Vol. 3’, so I don’t have to spend much time explaining it at the beginning of the film” he tells ComicBook, and in Deadline he comments: “I don’t have to talk about how they got Wisdom or what Cosmo was doing in Wisdom. I think you see Nebula’s (Karen Gillan) role in the group: she’s the leader to some extent. The changes have been seen since we last saw them.”. We will have to be careful of the possible threads that link the special to the film.