And Calvin Squeels For Joy Like A Little School Girl

According to a mighty internet sleuth, Nathan Fillion will play Richard Rider in this summer’s GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. That’s right. After he was skeeted out of the Green Lantern gig (I love Ryan Reynolds, but he shouldn’t have been Hal Jordan) Nathan Fillion has a proper marquee role.

He’ll supposedly have a teeny tiny role in Guardians, but this will almost certainly lead to bigger and better things. If he doesn’t appear in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, then he’ll surely appear in some other cosmic movie. I imagine an Annihilation themed flick with intersecting Cosmic heroes. Minus Silver Surfer, of course, since he belongs to Fox Studios.

With DC’s own Justice League movie releasing in 2017, Marvel’s upping the ante. Nova’s obviously inspired by the Green Lantern Corp, so by introducing a fan favorite like Fillion as the lead so much sooner than WB’s rebooted Hal Jordan, Marvel claims influence over the whole ‘outer space superhero cops’ genre. After all, the fickle world of general movie goers only have room in their heart’s for one interstellar detective, and supposing Marvel Studios delivers a compelling Fillion Nova, they’ll easily claim masses.

 

If only for his work on FIREFLY, Nathan Fillion gets a free pass for life from me. He was my original choice to play Hal Jordan in the first Green Lantern movie but he was doing Castle at the time. However, having him play Richard Rider, a powerful member of the Nova Corps, basically the Green Lanterns of the Marvel Universe. They are like human rockets and enormously powerful. They police the Galaxy so that puts them in direct conflict with the Guardians of the Galaxy. It fits. Rider is a human who was given the Nova powers and rose in the ranks to be one of their best soldiers - a Nova Prime. He's a great Cosmic hero and Fillion is a great casting choice after it was clear he wasn't going to be Ant Man, another great casting idea for him. Marvel has got it's shit together, especially in it's live action movie division. Next step - the animation division.

 

 

The current Nova in the comics is a kid but that can always be rewritten in the movie.