It seemed like only yesterday when fans of the MCU, especially the Guardians of the Galaxy, were worried that 2017’s “Vol. 2” would be the last of the spacefaring Marvel hero team’s movies with director James Gunn at the helm. After being booted by Disney in 2018 because of some questionable years-old social media posts, Gunn was snapped up by Warner Bros. to work on their sequel/soft reboot of the DCEU movie “The Suicide Squad.” Thankfully Disney-Marvel saw reason and brought Gunn back in 2019, though now development of “Guardians” Vol. 3 has fallen into the COVID pandemic period. Meanwhile, Gunn has a “Guardians” proposal for Disney+ streaming next year.

According to Comic Book Resorurces, filmmaker James Gunn has taken to Twitter to tease “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special,” a little mini-story featuring the titular Guardians of the Galaxy in a likely quirky adventure that is just right for streaming during the Holiday season. The special was first mentioned last year during Disney’s Investor Day, and it looks like Gunn has a complete draft of the script if the photo of a title page on his Twitter is any indication. The writer-director even credits himself with the appropriate Holiday themed nickname “Long Elf.”

Other than the fact that it will be a Yuletide side-story for exclusive streaming on Disney+ all that is known is that Gunn is filming this “Holiday Special” at the same time as “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” That would imply that the special is live-action and will have the same cast from the main movies: Chris Pratt a Star-Lord, Dave Bautista as Drax and so on. The director already implied that the scale of the galactic setting for “Vol. 3” will be even bigger than the previous films, with alien worlds and extraterrestrials. “I’m not sure if the galaxy is big enough for all this magic,” Gunn says.

Before the 2018 trouble between James Gunn and Disney/Marvel Studios, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” was supposed to start filming in 2019 and release the following year. Gunn would announce a completed script in November 2020, with plans to begin production in late 2021 alongside the “Holiday Special.” Just as the latter will debut on Disney+ in the 2022 Holidays, “Guardians” Vol. 3 is supposed to come out 2023.

Image from WDW News Today