Christmas is in the air and it is all around as the new Marvel Special Presentation arrived during Thanksgiving to hype the season with The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special. Of course, the whole MCU is interconnected so here are the Easter eggs and comic book references from it!
Table of Contents
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special MCU Easter Eggs and Comic Book References
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: New Home, Knowhere
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Welcome to the Team, Cosmo the Spacedog!
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Mantis' Secret
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: I Don't Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here)
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Avengers and Other Character Actors
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Drax's Go-Bot Mayhem
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Kingo's Poster, Eternals Connection
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Flula Borg Cameo
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: "I'm Batman"
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: The David Bowie Reference
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Footloose Reference
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Rocket's Gift, Bucky's Arm!
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Groot's Gift To All
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Origins of Star-Lord's Quad Blaster
- The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Groot, the Christmas Tree
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special. Read at your own risk!
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special MCU Easter Eggs and Comic Book References
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special is the second Marvel Special Presentation which will be in line with the Christmas season. The first is Werewolf by Night which came out in time for Halloween. It focuses on the Christmas mayhem of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The approximately 42-minute special presentation is directed by James Gunn and it stands as the prologue between Phases Four and Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe releasing just after Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and before Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Being canon to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special is still teeming with tons of comic book references and connections to the whole franchise. Check out whether you've spotted all of it!
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: New Home, Knowhere
The head of the celestial which became the place where Taneleer Tivan, the Collector, established his museum is now the home of the Guardians of the Galaxy as confirmed in The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special when Nebula said that they've bought the place from the Collector.
Now that the Guardians of the Galaxy are running the place, they now have a place to call home, and they are not just floating around space on their ship. The place became brighter, less dangerous, and the residents of the place continues to live there.
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Welcome to the Team, Cosmo the Spacedog!
One of the said residents of Knowhere is part of the collection of Taneleer Tivan, Cosmo the Spacedog, who already had her cameo appearances before in Vol. 2, and in Infinity War.
Cosmo the Spacedog is a Golden Retriever-Labrador mix in a space suit, who ended up in space after being exposed to Cosmic Rays, similar to that of the Fantastic Four, which gave Cosmo increased intellect and even psychic abilities. It is revealed in The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special that she is telekinetic.
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Mantis' Secret
The very reason why Mantis went through all the trouble in The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special is her big secret which could set up what the future of Peter Quill and Mantis would be especially coming into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
It turns out Mantis' father is also Ego, the very reason how Ego got her in the first place. Even when Mantis thought it would only remind Peter about their horrible father, when Peter Quill found out about it, he tells Mantis that having a sister is the best Christmas gift he could ever have.
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: I Don't Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here)
James Gunn co-wrote a song for The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special with Old 97s, and it is titled I Don't Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here). The Old 97s dressed up as residents of Knowhere and they got ahold with the instruments of Earth which they used to play the song about the historic document -- Christmas.
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Avengers and Other Character Actors
If you've been on Hollywood Boulevard, you'll know that there are tons of character actors standing there for pictures with the locals and tourists around the area and it is even one of the most popular places to go to when in Hollywood. Well, for Mantis and Drax, it's confusing, really.
They see a guy wearing a Captain America suit and Mantis thought it was Steve Rogers, then there are those who were wearing a Captain Marvel and Black Widow suit, too.
Other than Marvel characters, there are also some street performers, Captain Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Caribbean, and a Go-Bot from Transformers.
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Drax's Go-Bot Mayhem
Speaking of the Go-Bot from Transformers, Drax is clearly not a fan. The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special also shed some light on some of the past of Drax as it was revealed that robot looking like the Go-Bot killed his cousin, and knowing Drax, he's good at carrying grudges.
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Kingo's Poster, Eternals Connection
One of the major Easter eggs in The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special is definitely the poster for Kingo's Christmas. See, the special presentation is set at Christmas time of 2025, around a year or two after the Eternals, which ended with Arishem taking Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo.
With this poster, theories suggest that the three Eternals came back on Earth which leads to a lot of questions on what happened between Eternals and The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special, and especially, how Kingo still remained as a famous Bollywood actor. What did Arishem do to them?
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Flula Borg Cameo
With James Gunn being the director of both The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special and Suicide Squad, there is one cameo appearance that is a callback to the later -- Flula Borg who plays Javelin in Suicide Squad and he appeared as the bartender whom Mantis and Drax asked about the whereabouts of Kevin Bacon.
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: "I'm Batman"
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special, being under James Gunn who is now a top executive at DCU, also has a treat for the DC fans as when Kevin Bacon was asked by Mantis to be a hero, Kevin Bacon did his best imitation of Batman saying, "I'm Batman, no, I'm Bruce Wayne."
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: The David Bowie Reference
With Star-Lord being heavily influenced by pop culture in the 80s, his new ship has a familiar name that has a ring on it, "the Bowie." It is after the name of the musician, David Bowie, similar to the name of his first ship, the Milano, which is after Alyssa Milano.
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Footloose Reference
Of course, since Star-Lord is such a huge fan of the 80s and with Kevin Bacon there, there would always be that running reference to Footloose, which starred Kevin Bacon as Ren McCormack and he saved a town through dancing, the same as when Star-Lord saved the universe through a dance-off in Vol. 1.
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Rocket's Gift, Bucky's Arm!
Rocket is known for being a tinkerer and he likes to have people's technological body parts. It could be remembered in Infinity War when he met the Winter Soldier and offered to pay Bucky for his arm. The joke continues with Rocket in The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special.
During their exchange gift, Nebula gave Rocket a very special present -- Bucky's arm. Well, from the looks of it, it is the new arm of Bucky, the one given by Wakanda as a present, but what happens to Bucky now? Does he have a new arm?
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Groot's Gift To All
Groot, being young and sweet as he is, made sure he prepared gifts for everyone and he made them happy as he gave them personalized depictions from his own twigs. See, the gifts are familiar, right? Well, they are scenes from The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special, of course!
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Origins of Star-Lord's Quad Blaster
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special all started with the story of Kraglin on how Yondu ruined Christmas for Peter Quill but Peter clarified in the end how that story ended and it involves his go-to weapon, his Quad Blasters. It turns out it was a gift from Yondu and since then, it became his favorite guns.
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special Easter Egg: Groot, the Christmas Tree
What is Christmas without a Christmas tree, right? Well, that won't be a problem for the Guardians of the Galaxy since they have their very own tree with Groot, and in the hilarious post-credits scene, it finally happens.
The post-credits scenes of The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special shows Rocket and Cosmo the Spacedog decorating Groot with Christmas ornaments and Groot isn't quite in it to be a Christmas tree so when Groot dropped his arms, they said Groot ruined Christmas and they have to make another one. Everyone's looking forward to it!
The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special is now available to stream exclusively on Disney Plus!