Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Has Not Yet Filmed Because of COVID-19 Concerns

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special has yet to start filming, despite its release this December. While out and about promoting HBO Max's Peacemaker, Guardians of the Galaxy helmer James Gunn revealed the rising cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in and around Los Angeles has pushed the production of the Disney+ special back further.

"It's still upcoming in the shoot. We were supposed to shoot one day in LA, and there's too much Omicron around, so we couldn't do it. We're going to have to fit it in. I haven't started yet. I'm excited to. It's fun," Gunn said in a recent chat with Collider.

He added, "The holiday special is... I'm almost jealous of it, even though I wrote it because people freak out so much on how much they love the script for the holiday special that I'm almost like, 'Well, wait. I've got this movie here I've been working on for two years. You love the holiday special that I literally wrote in a very short amount of time.' But, it is really funny and really good."

Gunn has also confirmed the holiday special is MCU canon and will need to be watched before Vol. 3.

"It's in-canon, it's about the Guardians, you're gonna learn stuff that you need to learn before Volume 3, and it's great I'm really happy with it," the filmmaker told Collider on the press tour for The Suicide Squad.

"I'm gonna film it at the same time as the movie. I'm using a lot of the same sets, the same actors obviously, so we're filming simultaneously with the film but it's gonna have to be edited and finished sooner."

The first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies are now streaming on Disney+ while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is due to hit theaters May 5, 2023. I Am Groot and the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special have yet to receive release dates.

What members of the Guardians would you like to see spin-off shows of? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!