A Quick Guide To Everything The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special Sets Up For Vol. 3

Marvel dropped its second-ever Marvel Studios Special Presentation this week, and while "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" packs a lot of fun into its short runtime, the latest one-off is not exactly a standalone story like "Werewolf at Night." In fact, the holiday special actually includes a surprising amount of connective tissue between "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (and the other films the Guardians have appeared in during the five-year span since) and the upcoming third and final installment of James Gunn's trilogy.

The new Disney+ special follows Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) on a side quest to get Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), an unexpected Christmas present, but it also gives Guardians fans plenty of updates on what the crew's been doing since we last saw them. Here's a quick rundown of everything from the new 42-minute special that might matter when the Guardians return in feature film form next May:

After piloting both the Milano (named after Alyssa, naturally) and the Benatar (after rock singer Pat, of course), the Guardians have returned with an impressive new ship called the Bowie. It's only fitting that their latest vessel be named after legendary musician David Bowie, as the artist's space-themed music and otherworldly persona has long-since been interwoven with the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise. His song "Moonage Daydream" appeared in the first film in 2014, and Bowie himself was in talks to make an appearance in the second installment before his death in 2016.

The Bowie also makes an appearance in Marvel comics, first popping up in Donny Cates' 2019 "Guardians of the Galaxy" comic book run in honor of the "Space Oddity" 50th anniversary. Gunn has also talked about the Bowie, and based on the scale of the set alone it sounds like a ship we'll likely be seeing more of in the future. On Twitter, Gunn credited production designer Beth Mickle and her team with the Bowie, calling it "probably the most magnificent and beautiful set I've ever been on in my life."

The Guardians have long-since been scrappers and travellers, prone to making their ship home since they don't all have planets or families to go back to. But the found family seems to have finally found a makeshift home base in the new special in the form of Knowhere, the Celestial-head planet that we've seen before in the MCU. Thanos (Josh Brolin) destroyed Knowhere back in "Avengers: Infinity War," but it seems the Guardians are committed to rebuilding it — and making it the perfect venue for an impromptu Kevin Bacon concert — in the new special.

While Knowhere looks pretty good by the end of the special thanks to Mantis and Drax's Christmas decorations, the planet's port has been pretty rundown in the past. As the name indicates, it's not really a place on everyone's radar, so criminals and misfits tend to congregate there. Gunn recently told Entertainment Tonight that the group actually owns the place now, having bought it from The Collector (Benicio del Toro). We'll see how Knowhere factors into the future of the Guardians in the new film, but for now, it's nice to see them find a comfortable place to land after essentially going on a decade-long galaxy-wide road trip.

In an exciting new development, Knowhere comes with its own protector: the space dog Cosmo! The new special finally introduces the intergalactic pup who, according to Marvel, is a golden retriever-Labrador mix. In a series whose most-loved characters include a sentient tree and a foul-mouthed anthropomorphic raccoon, a telekinetic dog with a space suit that seems to translate its thoughts to speech doesn't seem like too much of a stretch. The fact that the dog is voiced by "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" and "Bodies Bodies Bodies" breakout star Maria Bakalova just makes the newest member of the Guardians even more instantly lovable.

While we don't get too much Cosmo screen time, the dog is already a familiar character for Marvel comics fans. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's "Nova" comic introduced Cosmo in 2008, and the originally male dog serves as the chief of security for Knowhere's busy port. His origin story, which goes unmentioned in the special, involves a Soviet Union space mission gone awry. We expect we'll see more of Bakalova's good boy or girl in the next "Guardians of the Galaxy" film.

Marvel's self-referential style has allowed the MCU to avoid major plot hole accusations over the years thanks to scripts that often tie up loose ends and omissions years after the fact, and "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" is no exception. In "The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" we learned that Mantis is actually Peter Quill's half-sister, with both of them sharing the same dad, the now-defeated Celestial character Ego (Kurt Russell). We've seen the Guardians pop up in several movies since, but none of them have really had time to close the gap in communication between the two half-sibs until now.

"The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" takes this detail and runs with it, making Mantis and Drax's whole Bacon-gifting mission an attempt to break the news to Star-Lord gently. In the end, when Mantis lets him know, it's a lot less of a big deal than the fact that she kidnapped an earth celebrity. Now, as the Guardians head into their final chapter as a crew, they won't just be a found family, but a blood one, too.

While the holiday special spends plenty of time talking about Mantis and Star-Lord's family ties, there's another Guardian who goes unmentioned. The original version of Zoe Saldaña's green space alien has been absent from the MCU since "Avengers: Infinity War," when her adopted father Thanos killed her, setting up a series of events that led to the world and franchise-changing Snap. We've seen alternate universe versions of Gamora since, though, in both "What If..." and "Avengers: Endgame."

The latter Gamora comes from a 2014 timeline and didn't recognize her lover Quill in the film, but we already know Saldana is set to reprise her role as some version of Gamora in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3." Maybe there's hope for a happy ending for pair yet, but until then, we just know she's still conspicuously absent from the Guardians lineup for now. In the meantime, her sister Nebula (Karen Gillan) is holding down the fort (and trash talking actors) in the new special.

In a moment that could be intended as either a reminder for forgetful fans or an omen for his future, the holiday special makes a point of letting us know that Kraglin (Sean Gunn) is still pretty bad with the Yaka Arrow he got from Yondu (Michael Rooker) after his death. The former Ravager was already an established part of the Guardians by the time they appeared in "Thor: Love and Thunder," but viewers haven't had an update about whether or not his Yaka Arrow aim has improved since he accidentally shot Drax in the post-credits scene of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2."

In the new special, we get a closer look at Kraglin that confirms that, yeah, he definitely ended up with the Yaka Controller firmly implanted in his head and will be in control of the whistle-controlled arrow from now on. But as he tells Bacon, "I ain't quite got the hang of it yet." Could we see more accidentally friendly fire in the new film? We'll see soon enough. Luckily, Star-Lord's hero Bacon made it home in one piece.

"The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" is now streaming on Disney+.