The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Ending Explained: Decoding the Climax to James Gunn's Marvel Presentation and Exploring Mantis’ Huge Revelation! (SPOILER ALERT)

After nearly five years, the Guardians finally have a new solo outing with The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. The special focuses on Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista) taking a detour to Earth to give Peter the best Christmas present possible by kidnapping Kevin Bacon and bringing him to Quill. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Review: James Gunn's Marvel Presentation is a True Festive Cheer! (LatestLY Exclusive).

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special surprisingly packed in a huge revelation that definitely set up Mantis as a huge player going forward. With the inclusion of Kevin Bacon too, this special was a fun outing that doesn’t necessarily set up Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 in any way, but acts as a standalone story that definitely furthers the relationship of these characters. So, with that being said, let’s take a look at what Mantis’ revelation was in the Holiday Special.

Exploring Mantis’ Revelation

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, when we first meet Mantis with Ego (Kurt Russell), there are hints given that she might be his daughter too, but its never really confirmed. With Peter being Ego’s son, there was a huge possibility that both of them could have been related in some way, and that’s what The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is all about.

In the opening minutes of the special, we see Mantis confirm the fact that she is indeed Peter Quill’s sister, and is why trying to make Christmas so special for him so that he isn’t reminded of Ego whenever he looks at her. However, the special does end on quite the sweet note when she reveals the truth to Peter and he embraces her like a family. This shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise considering that a deleted Instagram post from the actress who played Mantis' mother in a cut scene from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 had already revealed this info back in 2017.

The development here is quite different considering Mantis and Peter were never really siblings in the comics. Rather, they were frenemies that would have occasionally cross each other’s paths. Still, this definitely an interesting development and knowing Gunn, he will definitely use this as an advantage to deliver an emotional punch in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.

Is There a Post-Credits Scene?

There is a post-credits scene in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, but it doesn’t really set up anything and is rather placed there as a joke. With Groot (Vin Diesel) being decorated as a Christmas tree by Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Cosmo (Maria Bakalova), he ends up ruining their work which leads to the duo of animals being annoyed.

This does confirm though in a way that Cosmo the Spacedog might be a huge part of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. Distinctly different from her comic book counterpart, Cosmo here is gender-swapped, and with Maria Bakalova in the role, this surely is going to be a treat. There is also a cool fun fact, that the inspiration for Cosmo was Laika, the first dog to be sent in space who was a female. So, this is a pretty cool nod nonetheless. In the comics, Cosmo was a dog that was sent into space by the Soviets. He would then accidentally end up landing into Knowhere, which would give a push to his space journey. Pom Klementieff Reacts to The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Says 'We Are Going to Tell a Secret'.

We can check out the group next when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 releases in theatres on May 5, 2023.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 25, 2022 02:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).