In the wake of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 one of the really great pieces of news was that director James Gunn was already working not only on Vol. 3, but also on shaping the future of the Cosmic corner of Marvel’s cinematic universe. While the live-action rights to some of Marvel’s most well-known Cosmic characters (Silver Surfer, Galactus and Annihilus for instance) are owned by Fox, there are plenty of fantastic characters that Marvel Studios can use. One such character whose name almost always comes up when discussing potential Cosmic heroes is Nova. While Gunn has indicated in the past that he was not in a hurry to use Nova in a film, it seems the time may soon come for the Human Rocket to make his way to the big screen!

In a Facebook Live Q & A earlier today, Gunn was asked about the potential inclusion of Nova down the road. A Facebook user asked, “Is Nova (Richard Rider) contemplated for Marvel’s Cosmic universe?” Gunn’s response should definitely make fans of Rider feel a little better about the chances of the hero making his way to the big screen:

Yes, definitely. Nova comes up occasionally as someone we might use. One of the things I’m doing with creating Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will take place after the next two Avengers movies and it will help to set up the next ten to twenty years of Marvel movies. It’s going to really expand the Cosmic universe. We’re going to be setting up new characters, it will be the last movie of this version of Guardians of the Galaxy.

And while Gunn didn’t give us an absolutely definitive answer, it does seem pretty likely that The Man Called Nova is destined to debut in the MCU at some point. While younger audiences may not be as familiar with Rider as they are with the most recent comic book Nova, Sam Alexander, Marvel Studios has been pretty consistent on how they’ve dealt with legacy characters, so it would make sense that if/when we do see a Nova, it will be Rider. If that’s the case, it will be interesting to see how Gunn and company go about redefining his origin story as the MCU’s Nova Corps are currently non-powered space cops and vastly different from the very powerful Nova Corps in the comics. However, Gunn has reinvented several of the characters used in the Guardians films with great success and this should be no different.

Are there any Nova fans out there? What do you think about the potential for Richard Rider to finally see the big screen? Who would you like to see in the role, should it come to fruition?

SOURCE: Facebook via Comicbook.com