James Gunn gets into the holiday spirit, teases Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas special

Who needs a Christmas tree when you've got Groot?

James Gunn shared a little holly-jolly cheer on Thursday, posting an update on the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy holiday special. The writer-director — who's festively dubbed himself James "Long Elf" Gunn — shared a photo of his first draft on Twitter, adding, "This is the wrapping. The present is inside."

The upcoming special is a standalone project that'll debut on Disney+ in 2022, reuniting everyone's favorite ragtag, space-based superhero team for a Christmassy adventure.

In another tweet, Gunn also revealed the timeline for the holiday special, explaining that it will be set after the events of Thor: Love and Thunder but before the third Guardians of the Galaxy film. Familiar Guardian faces like Chris Pratt's Star-Lord, Karen Gillan's Nebula, Dave Bautista's Drax, and Pom Klementieff's Mantis have all been confirmed to appear in Taika Waititi's next Thor movie (in theaters May 2022), picking up after Chris Hemsworth's god of thunder was last seen teaming up with the Guardians in Avengers: Endgame.

After that, the Guardians will take the spotlight again with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, once again written and directed by Gunn and hitting theaters in 2023. Until then, we'll be counting down the days until Christmas 2022, when we'll see whatever festive madness Gunn will have waiting for us under the tree.

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