The following article contains spoilers for The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, now streaming on Disney+.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special writer-director James Gunn has offered a small but hilarious bit of context regarding how exactly Nebula (Karen Gillan) got Rocket (Bradley Cooper) exactly what he wanted for Christmas.
Back in the 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War, Rocket tried to buy Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier's (Sebastian Stan) vibranium arm, obviously to no avail, though he swore he'd get it eventually. In the musical finale of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Rocket does indeed get the arm -- as a gift from Nebula.
On Twitter, Gunn not only confirmed that Rocket did indeed receive Bucky's real arm, but revealed exactly how Nebula got ahold of it. While responding to a fan who was irate at the implication that Nebula could best Bucky -- describing the prospect as an example of "forced inclusion" -- the director retorted, "I'm not sure how a cyborg with advanced alien technology tearing off a human's arm because of an overabundance of Christmas-Spirit is forced inclusion, but now it's canon sorry."
The MCU's Phase Four Comes to an End
In other words, it looks like Bucky is in the market for yet another new metal arm heading into the upcoming film Thunderbolts, which is due to premiere on July 26, 2024 as part of Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film will see the Winter Soldier join forces with Yelena Belova/Black Widow (Florence Pugh), Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).
In the meantime, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special serves to close out Phase Four of the MCU. The Disney+ special centers on Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista) as they travel to Earth in search of the legendary Kevin Bacon (Kevin Bacon), hoping to give the actor as a Christmas present to Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt). MCU fans will see the Guardians again in the Phase Five film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is due to bow in theaters on May 5, 2023.
Marvel Studios' The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is currently streaming on Disney+.
Source: Twitter