How the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special’ Connects to ‘Vol. 3’

One last time. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is set to conclude Marvel Studios’ trilogy about the ragtag team of intergalactic heroes, and fans have high expectations for the flick.

Though Guardians of the Galaxy came out in 2014 and Vol. 2 was released in 2017, it hasn’t actually been quite that long since Marvel fans saw Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and his team. They appeared in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, where they helped defeat Thanos, and they made a cameo in Thor: Love and Thunder, which came out in July 2022.

After turning to dust for five years, the Guardians will return to the sky without Gamora (Zoe Saldana). Thanos killed his daughter in Infinity War, but the 2014 version of the character — who hadn’t fallen in love with Peter or decided to become a good guy yet — was left in the present day. She ran away before the Guardians could convince her to come with them, so she has some unfinished business with the team.

There are still Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 cliffhangers left to deal with as well. The end of the 2017 flick ominously teased the villain in a post-credits scene when Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), after losing a battle to Star-Lord’s team, says she has a plan for revenge. She reveals a birthing pod and says she has created the most powerful and beautiful being ever: Adam.

Black Mirror actor Will Poulter has been cast as the mysterious being. The England native told Variety in November 2021 that he was “very honored to have been welcomed into the Marvel family. Everyone I’ve interacted with there is great and you know, [I’m] very excited to be part of a franchise like Guardians, which I regard to be like, one of the most creative and unique.”

Director James Gunn revealed in May 2022 that filming was officially finished.

“And that’s a picture wrap on the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy,” he shared via Twitter at the time. “I love this amazing cast & crew & their beautiful talent & kind souls. I’m a lucky human to have them on the journey with me for nearly a decade.”

He shared a behind-the-scenes photo that included stars Sean Gunn (Kraglin), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Pratt, Karen Gillan (Nebula) and Dave Bautista (Drax). Saldana was noticeably absent, but Gunn said there’s a reason for that.

“And yes Zoe was with us but the only picture I have with her has an unannounced actor with us!” he captioned a polaroid of the Crossroads star and his fiancée, actress Jennifer Holland.

Scroll down to find out the release date, cast and everything we know so far about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3:

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Marvel Studios plans to have the third movie premiere in theaters on May 5, 2023. It will be released three months after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters in February and before Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels hits the big screen in July.

Fans should definitely watch the Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special on Disney+. Gunn said he used the November 2022 special as “a trojan horse” to avoid needing so much exposition in the third movie. 

“I used the holiday special as an opportunity to introduce some elements into Guardians of the Galaxy, so I didn’t have to explain them at the beginning of Volume 3,” Gunn told Deadline amid the holiday installment’s release. 

“I don’t have to talk about where they got [the new Guardians HQ] Knowhere from, or Cosmo being around Knowhere,” Gunn said, revealing that Cosmo the Space Dog (voiced by Maria Bakalova) will be in the next movie. The 45-minute special also introduced The Bowie, the Guardians’ new spaceship, as well as Nebula’s new role as a leader. 

In addition to Pratt, Saldana, Sean Gunn, Klementieff, Pratt, Gillan, Bautista and Poulter, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper are expected to return as the voices of Groot and Rocket Raccoon, respectively. In typical Marvel fashion, other casting details are being kept top secret.

That’s one question that will finally be answered in the 2023 flick. “When I first started doing Guardians of the Galaxy, I was like, ‘I don’t know, it sounds a little goofy.’ I thought it was going to be Bugs Bunny joins the Avengers,” Gunn explained at Comic-Con in July 2022. “But then I thought if there is a talking raccoon, how is he real? Where does he come from? I realized he was the saddest creature in the universe, and that’s what this story is about, to a great extent.”

Poulter’s Adam Warlock is supposed to be the perfect human, but he’ll likely be answering to a higher power — one who has it out for the Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel, however, has not confirmed if Debicki will be pulling Adam’s strings or if another baddie will join the sequel.

In addition to Poulter, Maria Bakalova will play Cosmo the Dog while Chukwudi Iwuji will portray High Evolutionary, Marvel confirmed at their San Diego Comic-Con panel in July 2022. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is definitely the end of this particular arc. “I think it’s really been about telling one story between the three films with a couple of sideways adventures,” Gunn told the SDCC audience. “But I think it really is about the one story. This is the final arc that we began at the very beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy, with Peter Quill, with Rocket, seeing where Nebula goes, and even Kraglin, who started out as saying one or two lines in the first movie and is now a main Guardian of the Galaxy.” 

That is the big question. Anything can happen when there’s an ending, and Gillan made it clear in a May 2022 Instagram post that she wasn’t so sure that there was a future for her blue alien.

“And that’s a wrap on Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3!” the Scottish actress captioned a photo of her chair via Instagram. “I don’t know if Nebula will return beyond this, it’s possible that this is her final chapter. And if that’s the case, then I just want to say thank you to @jamesgunn for giving me such an interesting, complex and fascinating character to play. I have enjoyed this exploration more than any other character I’ve played. That was one hell of a decade.”

The film will conclude a trilogy, which left Saldaña with mixed feelings. “[Filming] started bitter in the beginning cause obviously you’re anticipating the end, but I’m just so happy that once again I got to work with great people,” the actress told Entertainment Weekly in October 2022. “I had an evolution that I witnessed of myself, but also my director and my cast. I just felt very blessed and grateful. It was a very sweet departure, I have to say.”

The holiday special was shot simultaneously with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which Gunn called “an insane experience” in a November 2022 interview with Deadline. “Vol. 3 is a serious movie,” he said at the time. “It deals with these characters’ emotional lives. … [Vol. 3] has a lot of heaviness in it. So shooting that for a few days, and then shooting this goofy thing — these were like my recess days. When you see Guardians 3, you’ll see, yes, there’s a bad guy, but it’s not about that.”