Something fans my age have loved since their young TV-watching days was when their favorite characters would have a Christmas special. From Charlie Brown to the Brady Bunch, we couldn’t get enough of them once Thanksgiving was over. When it was announced that James Gunn had written and directed a Holiday Special for the Guardians Of The Galaxy to premiere on Disney+, fans were elated. What kind of presents and references did he pack into the special? Let’s run down all the Easter Eggs and references in the Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special.
Warning!!!! There will be spoilers for the Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special.
As with any Marvel Studios project, the special opens with the usual Marvel logo as comic panels flip by. This time though, they have replaced all the panels with specific stories that referenced Christmas in the old comics. Santa features prominently in a few of them. He is an actual character in the Marvel Universe and has even wielded the Infinity Gauntlet at one point.
Cosmo returns in the Holiday Special and has lines this time. We originally saw Cosmo as a captive in The Collector’s Collection in the first Guardians movie. Rocket and Cosmo growled at each other, indicating they may have some past history. Or it’s just a dog growling at a raccoon. Here they are working together to fix up Nowhere. Cosmo is voiced by Maria Bakalova of Borat 2 fame and will be part of the team in the upcoming Vol. 3.
In the comics, Cosmo was a dog sent out into space by the Russians to test space explorations. They were bombarded by cosmic rays and developed superpowers as they flew through space. Cosmo is based on the real-life space dog Laika. She was sent into space by Russian scientists to learn about how space exploration would affect living beings.
During the opening credits, the band Old 97s play a fun Christmas song where they completely misunderstand how Christmas works. The band is dressed up as aliens and tries to interpret Earth’s odd winter customs. One lyric mentions an elf who wants to be a dentist. This is a reference to Hermie the elf from the classic Christmas special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Throughout Drax and Mantis’ adventure on Earth, we see posters for a popular Bollywood Christmas movie Kingo’s Christmas. This is a reference to Kumail Nanjiani’s character of Kingo from The Eternals. He was a popular actor in Bollywood films, and either a new one has just been released (unlikely as he left Earth at the end of The Eternals), or it has become a holiday classic and gets lots of play during the Holiday season.
While Kevin Bacon gets an Introducing Kevin Bacon credit at the beginning of the special, another famous actor that is debuting in the MCU is his wife, Kyra Sedgwick. She voices herself when Bacon is on the phone with her as he unloads all the Christmas gifts he bought.
As Kevin Bacon is relaxing at his home, we see he is watching the B-Movie holiday classic Santa Claus Conquers The Martians. In this film, Santa is captured by Martians who want him to spread Christmas cheer on Mars. This is similar to Kevin Bacon’s plotline in the special as two aliens capture him to spread the holiday cheer on Nowhere. This movie may be better enjoyed if you watch the MST3K version.
Drax and Mantis take a Star Map copy showing where celebrity homes are. If you ever travel to L.A., these maps are actually real. You can find your favorite celebrity’s homes and stalk them, apparently. When it cuts to the animated map, we see John Cena’s and Margot Robbie’s homes. Both of them appeared in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. In the MCU, it looks like they are regular celebrities, just like Kevin Bacon.
When Mantis and Drax show up at the gate of Kevin Bacon’s house, we can see the house number is 1988. This is also the year that Yondu abducted Peter Quill. It would stand to reason that Peter has had a regular Christmas since he was abducted, as seen in the cartoon sequences in the special. This is a fun easter egg that references the original Guardians Of The Galaxy.
While returning to Nowhere, Drax and Mantis find that Kevin Bacon is just an ordinary actor. This almost causes them to vomit. In order to turn Kevin Bacon into the hero, they thought he was, Mantis uses her powers to make Kevin Bacon more heroic. He claims that he is Bruce Wayne and Batman. We’ve seen characters like Batman and Superman exist in the MCU as fictional heroes in The Eternals.
The special is filled with James Gunn’s usual needle drops in the Guardians films. The twist is that this time it’s lesser-known rock songs. There may have been one that sounded familiar, but you just couldn’t place it. That may have been Christmas Treat by Julian Casablancas. He does a cover of the classic Saturday Night Live song from Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, and Tracy Morgan.
When the Guardians finally unveil the Christmas treat for Peter, they begin to get into the spirit of the season and exchange gifts. We see that Nebula gives Rocket something he has wanted since he laid his eyes on it back in Avengers: Infinity War. Bucky’s arm. He is very happy with her selection. This shows how close the two got when they were the only Guardians left after the Blip.
At first, we think Yondu is a straight-up intergalactic Scrooge. When Peter reveals that Yondu actually accepted his gift, it’s something we’ve seen before. In the first film, we learn that Yondu likes to line up little figurines on his console. We see that he has a whole lineup of them. Here, Peter gives him a little green figure, and it’s shown that this was the first one he collected. Back in the first film, when his lineup is shown, the figure Peter gave him is present. This makes Peter giving him the Troll doll instead of the infinity stone an even sweeter gesture.
What Easter Eggs did you see in the Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special? Let us know in the comments.