James Gunn Reveals He Wrote 'The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special' in 'A Few Hours'

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" will be James Gunn's last Marvel Cinematic Universe movie before he heads to DC Studios, but he's still got some fan fun before he leaves the MCU.

Next week, Gunn's longtime passion project "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" will begin streaming on Disney+. The unique event is a tribute to the infamous "Star Wars Holiday Special" as well as many of the most heartily received specials that families watch every Christmas.

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gunn opened up about his creative process behind the holiday special. It turns out his passion for the subject and his familiarity with the cast and characters made for an extremely easy script to write.

"I'll be honest, I wrote the script in a few hours, so it kind of slipped my mind. It was very easy", Gunn said, "Everything about filming was easy. Everything about getting people's performances was easy, whereas 'Vol. 3' was torture in every way."

Related Related

Gunn explained that he was able to achieve higher production value than would normally be possible for a Christmas special because he shot it on the same sets as the year's feature film next. In addition to saving money, it also allowed him to create more narrative synergy between the two projects.

“I shot them simultaneously,” he said. "One of the great things about the special was being able to introduce things into the film that I don't have to explain then at the start of the film, such as Cosmo the Spacedog [Maria Bakalova] or the fact that they live in the head of Knowhere, their new residence, or showcasing their spaceship, the Bowie, which in real life is this four-story set. It's the most amazing set I've ever been on, and so we were able to use those sets that we had the money to build for 'Vol. 3,' in the special. Otherwise, we wouldn't have had that kind of money to build those million dollar sets ."

"The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" begins streaming on Disney+ on Friday, November 25.

Sign Up: Stay up to date with the latest film and TV news! Sign up for our email newsletters here.