The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special Had An Eternals Appearance
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special has several Easter Eggs featuring Kumail Najiani's Eternals character Kingo on movie posters.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special has plenty of fun surprises for fans, not the least of which is some Easter Eggs that include Kumail Najiani’s character Kingo from Eternals (via The Direct). Those who have seen the 2021 Marvel film featuring the titular team will remember that Kingo spent some of his time on Earth becoming a (generation of) Bollywood superstar(s). The Guardians special paid homage to this as you can see a poster of Kingo’s movie Haxan’s Haxaner at the TCL Chinese Theater while Drax and Mantis are on the hunt for Kevin Bacon.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special didn’t just settle for one Eternals Easter egg, as you can also see a billboard for a movie called Kingo’s Christmas above a bar that Drax and Mantis visit. Kingo was definitely a fan-favorite character, thanks in no small part to Kumail Najiani’s performance, so it’s cool to see these cameos in the greater MCU storyline. Perhaps there can be an in-person cameo from Kingo in a future project.
While The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special didn’t have any additional Eternals cameos, it did become an instant holiday classic thanks to James Gunn, the Guardians cast, and of course, Kevin Bacon. The special sees Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista) seeking to give Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) a gift that will cheer him up for the holidays. That gift just happens to be his favorite actor from Footloose.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special also stars Sean Gunn, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, and Maria Bakalova making her debut as Cosmo the Dog. The special doesn’t add much to the lore of Eternals, but this is the type of interconnectivity that the MCU should keep up if they don’t want fans to get crossover and cameo fatigue. It’s subtle worldbuilding that fans can appreciate.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is the second to last we spend time with this Guardians team and James Gunn in the MCU, as their story will be coming to an end in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. As for the Eternals, their MCU future is a little more nebulous at this time. While there hasn’t been an official announcement for a sequel, it seems unlikely that these characters would be left behind altogether.
For now, it seems like brief cameos in projects like The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special are where we’re most likely to see more of the Eternals characters, but it seems very likely that we will see them again at some point. Films like Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars seem like good opportunities for the characters to show up, but we’ll just have to wait and see. They also don’t necessarily have to all show up as a team together, so there’s a chance we could see individual team members show up.
You can now watch The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special on Disney+ and check out the Eternals cameos yourself. You can also see the MCU’s most recent film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in theaters. Stay tuned for more news about any and all MCU projects.
