Guardians of the Galaxy's James Gunn solves Holiday Special mystery

Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special spoilers follow.

James Gunn has cleared up that burning question Marvel fans had about the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.

The 45 minute-long festive special sees the Guardians attempt to cheer Quill (Chris Pratt) up after losing Gamora (Zoe Salanda), by bringing him legendary dance-fighter Kevin Bacon and celebrating Earth's holiday, Christmas, in the limited way that they understand it.

While there were some major bombshells in the Disney+ special, such as Mantis (Pom Klementieff) being Quill's half-sister, one moment in particular left fans puzzled – when Nebula (Karen Gillan) gives Rocket the gift of Bucky Barnes' (Sebastian Stan) mechanical arm.

The Winter Soldier would be lost without his replacement vibranium arm (and only the Dora Milaje seem to know how to safely remove it) which begs the question, how did Nebula get it? And does Bucky not have a mechanical arm now?

© Disney+ Rocket, Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

© Disney+ Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

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Guardians of the Galaxy director Gunn took to Twitter on Monday (November 29) to explain how Nebula came to have Bucky's arm and revealed she claimed it after she won a duel with him.

Gunn wrote: "I'm so sorry, but it already happened. Nebula thinks of Bucky as wet crepe paper. That said, she couldn't help tearing off the arm because she was just feeling so freaking Christmasy! PS. No one forced me to include alien cyborgs."

He also provided some more background about the team in the special to give fans a few more hints about their final movie in 2023, Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3.

The Guardians managed to save enough credits through their well-paid mercenary work to buy Knowhere from the Collector, after Thanos attacked the planet when he took the reality stone in Avengers: Infinity War.

© Disney+ Nebula, Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

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"Although the Guardians are sometimes heroes, they work as mercenaries and it brings in a fair amount of money," Gunn added in the same thread on Twitter.

"So after Thanos attacked Knowhere they bought it from the Collector. It was a burnt-out husk and they've been rebuilding it."

It seems the Guardians' new life on Knowhere will be explored in the next instalment of the franchise, while MCU fans might have to wait until the Thunderbolts to see whether Bucky has a new mechanical arm.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 and Vol 2 and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special are available on Disney+ now. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 arrives on May 5, 2023.