Marvel Gifts Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Images

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in images from The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Written and directed by James Gunn, the 42-minute Marvel Studios Special Presentation is a throwback to classic Christmas TV specials and a prologue to next summer's trilogy-ender Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Cue the Wham! song: the Holiday Special will be the Last Christmas for this team of Guardians, the merry band of misfits that includes Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Kraglin (Sean Gunn), Groot (Vin Diesel), and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper).

Images from the Christmas-themed special show Knowhere decked out in yuletide treasure, Drax donning ugly Christmas sweater apparel, and the "legendary" Kevin Bacon (himself). With the human Peter Quill/Star-Lord still sad over Gamora (Zoe Saldana), aliens Drax and Mantis head to Earth to find their leader the perfect present: Footloose star Kevin Bacon. 

"I think it's such a unique relationship and they really are kind of like Abbot and Costello, but both are Costellos, but Drax is such an enormous Costello that he outweighs her Costello-ness," Gunn told ComicBook of the dynamic between Drax and Mantis. "I love the two of them. I wanted to be able to put them at the center of the story as opposed to on the sidelines."

Gunn continued: "I think both of them have — in the past few [Marvel] movies that weren't Guardians movies — have been incredibly sidelined, haven't been utilized so much. So being able to really tell their story and put their journey at the middle of this was important to me. And to be able to see just how talented those two actors are as comedians and dramatically. Especially, you see how good Pom is in this show."

See the images in the gallery below and check out our viewer's guide to The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, streaming November 25th on Disney+.