The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special Seems To Add GoBots To Marvel Canon

Warning: The following article contains minor spoilers for "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special."

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is notably devoid of Transformers. Yeah, yeah, there are some robots in disguise lingering somewhere in the background — at least, there are if the Eternals count — but that's not the same thing as having Optimus Prime roll out with his armada of Autobots to do glorious battle against Doctor Doom. That would be the good kind of ridiculous, right? Fortunately, James Gunn agrees, and the man tends to get what he wants, partially because Marvel fired and then subsequently rehired him, partially because he's now helming the foundering DC Universe of live action stories, and partially because he's just that good. For those who don't know, Gunn is the creative mind behind the MCU's "The Guardians of the Galaxy" films, as well as "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special." 

In the latest Disney + Special Presentation (a title Gunn's Christmas feature shares with "Werewolf by Night," a Halloween short that aired earlier in 2022), Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementief) travel in secret to abduct literal Kevin Bacon (Kevin Bacon, because duh) as a Christmas present for Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), aka Starlord. Hey, all these weird names sound familiar, right? Just in case, here's a solid primer on the MCU's loveable band of violent criminals masquerading as intergalactic heroes. 

Anyway, during their search, Drax encounters some guy cosplaying as a GoBot. Rather than passing him by, Drax attempts to kill him because, apparently, a real GoBot killed his cousin. Mantis stops him — barely — and, the second she's otherwise distracted, Drax clobbers the poor dude. Two questions, then: What the slash fic is a GoBot, and should we expect to see them in future adventures? 

GoBots are the star of yet another cautionary tale that proves how marketing matters far more than being the first in the market. In everything but name, GoBots and Transformers are functionally identical. Like Transformers, GoBots are space robots that transform into vehicles. Like Transformers, the robots are divided into two groups — the Guardians (hey, they used the word!) and the Renegades. Like Transformers, GoBots worked in tandem with a small force of human allies. Like Transformers, GoBots received a toy line, a cartoon, and even a comic series. 

Unlike Transformers ... Gobots were owned by Tonka, a company that didn't handle the financial side of things particularly well. Although GoBots entered the zeitgeist in 1983, a full year before Hasbro's Transformers were even a blip on America's radar, the rest of the 1980s saw GoBots peter out while Transformers flourished. Ultimately, Hasbro purchased Tonka, and GoBots canonically became an alternate universe within the larger Transformers story. Leader-1 and Cy-Kill and all of their respective teams are now officially off brand variants of Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Now, the cleverest readers will note that nowhere in that last few paragraphs did we mention Marvel and that's because neither Marvel nor its parent company Disney have any obvious connection to Hasbro. If anything, Hasbro is more closely tied to DC because both companies have films under the Warner Bros banner. So, what's the deal with Gunn sneaking them into the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

This is all speculation, but the whole GoBots bit is probably just that, a bit. All of Gunn's projects are packed with references to the 1980s (along with sentient animal companions), so it's not outside of reason for something like GoBots to make a cameo. That being said, it's hard to ignore how Gunn canonized them as part of Drax's extended backstory. If they were truly just going to be a cameo, the cosplayer's presence alone was enough. It's even harder to ignore the GoBots after realized that Gunn used the Christmas special as a delivery method for exposition that he didn't want to cover in "The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

Then again, Gunn technically canonized Kevin Bacon, an actor who appeared in other MCU adjacent films. If anyone was going to shake up the lore by featuring an entirely new roster of characters that have no business being there, it would be Gunn, who seems to revel in his tweaks. Hey, Gunn, do "Inspector Gadget" next, would you?