James Gunn and the team is all set to create a holiday special edition of Guardians Of The Galaxy. He tweeted as much on April 22, 2021. The tweet was accompanied by a snap of the cover page of the script to the special. 

"This is the wrapping. The present is inside. #GotGHS," said Gunn. Star Wars star Mark Hamill, however, does not feel good about this idea, perhaps because he is afraid history will repeat itself. 

Hamill Has A Bad Feeling About This

Just hours after Gunn made his tweet, Hamil reposted the tweet saying, "I have a bad feeling about this." To which Gunn came back with, "These things ALWAYS go well." Both Gunn and Hamill are well aware that these things don't "ALWAYS" go well. 

This is most certainly not the first time that a franchise has attempted a holiday special, and this will not be the last. Much like Marvel, the Star Wars franchise tried their hands at a holiday special back in '78. The Star Wars Holiday Special made it on-air once on Friday, November 17, 1978, on CBS and never again.

Much like you expected from this buildup, the show did not go well. In fact, it is regarded as one of the monumental failures of the franchise. So much so, series creator George Lucas once said:

If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of [The Star Wars Holiday Special] and smash it.

And guess what? Mark Hamill was the face of this gargantuan mess. According to him, the show was initially designed to “help keep Star Wars in the [public] consciousness.”

And, according to the folks over at Esquire, the show was, and I quote, "an unfortunate mix of unwise ideas and creative chaos."

The failure is usually credited to a lack of hands-on interest and supervision from Star Wars creator Lucas who, at the time, was engrossed with The Empire Strikes Back. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by James Gunn (@jamesgunn)

The Holiday Special Fits into the Existing MCU

Getting back to the shenanigans of Starlord and his ragtag crew, The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special is set to take place within the existing continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

To be more precise, this special will be taking place after the events of Thor: Love and Thunder and before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. 

The special will probably also give fans a better insight into how Peter Quill and Thor's friendly rivalry in the last two Avengers movies evolved, given that the fourth iteration of Thor is set to heavily feature the Guardians as well. 

The holiday special does not come with a release date yet, but the Thor sequel will be released (hopefully in theatres) on May 6, 2022, while the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be available sometime in 2023.