Kevin Bacon goes from an inside joke in Guardians of the Galaxy to a bona fide Marvel Cinematic Universe co-star in the new trailer to The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.
Written and directed by Guardians' series director James Gunn, and billed as a "Marvel Studios Special Presentation," the trailer shows Chris Pratt's Peter Quill/Star-Lord still bummed about his love, Zoe Saldaña's Gamora, going missing at the end of Avengers: Endgame.
To cheer him up just in time for Christmas, Sean Gunn's Kraglin, Karen Gillan's Nebula, Pom Klementieff's Mantis, Dave Bautista's Drax, and of course Bradley Cooper's Rocket and Vin Diesel's Groot hatch a plan.
The Guardians land on Earth and plot to snatch "the legendary Kevin Bacon" as a gift for Star-Lord, but obviously a gray giant and "that chick with the antennae," as Rocket refers to Mantis, breaking into the star's home doesn't sit well with Bacon.
He flees in vain.
Bacon's connection to the MCU so far has been in name only: Quill, who was snatched from Earth as a child, refers to Bacon as a hero in Guardians and apes Footloose in the "dance off to save the galaxy" at the film's climax.
In Avengers: Infinity War, Mantis asks Thor if Bacon is one of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes," to which Thor suggests he "may have joined" the Avengers in his absence from Earth.
In the same film, Quill asks Tom Holland's Peter Parker/Spider-Man if Footloose is "still the greatest movie ever made" on his native planet, to which Peter jeers, "It never was."
For his part, Bacon told Esquire in 2021 that Gunn name-dropping him into MCU was a happy surprise.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News.