Will the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Include Santa Claus, Marvel's Most Powerful Mutant?

During the Walt Disney Company's Investor Day 2020 event on Thursday fans were hit with some major [...]

By Nicole Drum

During the Walt Disney Company's Investor Day 2020 event on Thursday fans were hit with some major announcements from every corner of the media empire, but some of the most exciting came from Marvel with the announcement of a number of new projects including one that promptly blew fans' minds. James Gunn, the fan-favorite filmmaker behind the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise will be bringing a live-action The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special to Disney+ in time for holiday 2022. From the moment of the announcement, fans had all kinds of questions about what they could expect and while as with all things Marvel, details are being played close to the vest there's one burning question we have: will the holiday special include Marvel's most powerful of all mutants, Santa Claus himself?

If that question just blew your mind, here's a quick primer. Yes, Santa Claus is real in the Marvel Universe. While the figure has appeared in Marvel Comics multiple times over the years, it was in 1991's Marvel Holiday Special that the iconic Christmas figure was revealed to be a mutant. In the story "A Miracle A Few Blocks Down From 32nd Street", the X-Men get an alert about a nearby mutant while they are decorating their Christmas tree. The alert indicates that this detected mutant is the most powerful ever registered and he's currently at Rockefeller Center. The X-Men go to check it out and end up finding themselves doing battle with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants... at least until Santa shows up, revealing his mutant powers when he saves the day.

An Omega Level mutant, Santa Claus is right up there with the likes of Apocalypse and Jean Grey making him pretty impressive, with powers including longevity, some sort of possible shapeshifting (he does go down chimneys, after all), telekinesis, teleportation, telepathy, and a wide array of other abilities that haven't been fully codified. These powers -- and not to mention that Disney has the rights back to the X-Men and thus mutants more broadly -- would make Santa a perfect addition to the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. In fact, there's already an easy way to bring Santa into things with the Guardians via Howard the Duck. Howard has appeared in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise but in comics Santa has had a number of adventures with Howard -- Howard has even served as a mall Santa and helped save Christmas from Hydra.

It sounds absolutely bonkers, but it also sounds like exactly the sort of thing that would be perfect for the Guardians special -- and if you want to get really tinfoil hat about it all, some fans think that Gunn himself may have already teased at least the appearance of Santa in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. On Twitter Thursday, Gunn replied to a fan questioning if the announcement of the special was real and he noted that it is, indeed real -- and included an emoji of Santa Claus in the response as well.

"I'm being asked this a lot," Gunn wrote. "Yes, the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is real, it's something that @MarvelStudios & I have been cooking up for years. The story is as crazy & fun as can be, & it's live-action & in the MCU. OH MAN I WISH I COULD TELL YOU MORE!"

During the Disney Investor Day presentation, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige confirmed the special would be filmed during principal photography on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. While the holiday special is currently scheduled for 2022, Feige confirmed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will get a 2023 release date.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is expected to drop Holidays 2022.

Do you think Santa Claus will appear in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special? Let us know in the comments.

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