The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is set to be remembered fondly as a jolly little asterisk to the conclusion of Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Having served the honorable duty of making Kevin Bacon and the Go-Bots canon to the MCU, giving us a taste of Maria Bakalova’s Cosmo the Spacedog, and still somehow managing to bring a tear to one’s eye amidst all the Gunn-laced shenanigans, it had one, quaint, respectable goal, and it pulled it off perfectly.
As with every Marvel feature, questions still remain, and the biggest one of all could have far-reaching implications on our perceived scope of the MCU. Star-Lord was brought to the cosmos from Earth as a small child, and his mother may not have gotten around to telling him that Santa didn’t exist. Realizing this, the more festive side of r/marvelstudios have begun to question if Peter Quill, now a grown man (or at least a human who’s adjacent to a grown man), still believes in Santa Claus or not.
This got thrown out the window almost immediately when another user posed the much more important question of whether Santa actually does exist in the MCU canon or not.
Considering Santa is real in the comics and is a mutant, no less, the possibility is very real.
This is perhaps further backed up by Santa deniers boasting some of the densest takes on the entire thread.
With everything Quill has been through, it’s not that much of a stretch to believe in Santa now.
The Holiday Special even referenced a comics-sounding Santa in the opening musical number.
As far as we’re concerned, the question isn’t, “Does Star-Lord believe in Santa?” so much as it is, “Has Star-Lord ever met Santa?” The answer seems to be no at the moment, but if Tom Hanks wants to channel his Polar Express energy and bring Santa to the MCU, it would no doubt be the very merriest of gifts.