Every ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ cast member ranked by their ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’ score

Have you ever heard of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?” The rules of the game are simple, pick an actor and try to remember if they have ever been in a movie with the one and only, Kevin Bacon. If they have not, try and think of an actor who has been in a movie with another actor who might have been in a movie with Kevin Bacon. Keep trying until you come up with one who has. The goal is to get the least amount of connections that you can possibly get.

The pool is about to get much, much bigger, possibly ruining the game. Bacon is about to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe with his appearance in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. This would not be the first time the actor has starred in a Marvel movie, as he did appear as Sebastian Shaw, the primary antagonist of X-Men: First Class. The sheer amount of names who appeared in Avengers: Endgame combined with the actors who will appear in the upcoming special will make the game much easier.

Even though everyone in the upcoming special will have a “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” score of one, but this list doesn’t count the Holiday Special. On that note, let’s take a look at the cast members of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and what their score was before the release of the upcoming Disney Plus special.

The scores

This might be a little anticlimactic, but every single main cast member of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, except for one, has a score of two. Not only do they have a score of two but nearly all of them have multiple ways of coming to that score. This might mean that Kevin Bacon needs to slow down in his career. Let’s take a look at all of the actors who have a score of two and how they are connected to the Footloose actor.

• Chris Pratt, who plays Peter Quill/Star-Lord, starred in Moneyball with Brad Pitt who starred in Beyond All Boundaries with Kevin Bacon. Beyond All Boundaries also starred James Cromwell who appeared in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom with Chris Pratt. Vincent D’Onofrio also starred in the original Jurassic World as well as JFK with Bacon.
• Zoë Saldaña, who plays Gamora, starred in Star Trek with Chris Pine, who starred in, you guessed it, Beyond All Boundaries with Kevin Bacon. Jennifer Morrison also starred in Star Trek, as well as Stir of Echoes with Bacon. She also shares connections with Tim Daly and Matt Dillon. 
• Dave Bautista, who plays Drax the Destroyer, was in Blade Runner 2049 with Ryan Gosling who appeared in Crazy, Stupid, Love with Kevin Bacon. Bacon also starred in Murder in the First with Brad Dourif, who was in My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done with Dave Bautista.
• Karen Gillan, who plays Nebula, starred in The Circle with the late Bill Paxton, who starred in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon. Bacon was also in Black Mass with Rory Cochrane who was in Oculus with Gillan.
• Vin Diesel, who voices Groot, was in The Last Witch Hunter with Elijah Wood, who was in The Toxic Avenger with Kevin Bacon. Bacon was also in Hollow Man 2 with Nolan Gerard Funk who was in Riddick with Vin Diesel. Diesel also shares connections with Scott Caan and Ted Danson.
• Bradley Cooper, who voices Rocket Raccoon, starred in Serena with Toby Jones who starred in Frost/Nixon with Kevin Bacon. Bacon was also in Novocaine with Keith David who appeared in All About Steve with Bradley Cooper. Cooper also shares connections with Kevin Connolly and Greg Grunberg.
• Pom Klementieff, who plays Mantis, starred in the remake of Oldboy with Josh Brolin who starred in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon. Although everybody above this entry, including Klementieff, could easily claim Brolin as well as he played Thanos in Avengers: Endgame, and Avengers: Infinity War. She also shares a connection with Octavia Spencer.
• Maria Bakalova, who plays newcomer Cosmo, shares the coveted Footloose connection as she was in The Bubble with John Lithgow, who was in Footloose with Kevin Bacon. Interestingly, The Bubble also starred Benedict Cumberbatch (as well as Karen Gillan), who was in Black Mass with Bacon. 

Interestingly, there are plenty of people in Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War who have starred in films with Kevin Bacon, such as the aforementioned Josh Brolin, as well as Peter Dinklage, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Mark Ruffalo. 

There are two people involved in the Guardians of the Galaxy films who happen to win the game and have a Kevin Bacon score of one. Of course, they are Sean Gunn, who plays Kraglin the Ravager in the franchise, and his brother James Gunn, the writer and director of the Guardians of the Galaxy films and the upcoming special. Of course, James Gunn casts his brother in his projects, not that Sean is not talented (looking at you Gilmore Girls) but James casting his brother in Super earned him the top spot among the cast. Indeed, it was most likely Super and his familiarity with Bacon which led James Gunn to make the Kevin Bacon joke in the original Guardians of the Galaxy film in the first place. 

There are also two actors who have starred with Kevin Bacon twice—Michael Rooker who starred in both Super and JFK, and Djimon Hounsou who starred in both White Elephant and Barber Shop with Bacon. Rooker will presumably not appear in the upcoming holiday special because his character, Yondu, died in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, whereas Hounsou was a side character in the first film. 

Of course, in the end, this was just a bit of fun because every cast member of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special will be elevated to the highest ranking in “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” because Bacon himself is in the special. Good luck to anybody who tries to name an MCU star for the game in the future, because it is about to be much simpler. Catch The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special when it flies onto Disney Plus Friday.