Nova Probably Won't Appear In 'Guardians Of The Galaxy 2'

One character that has been the subject of speculation for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is Nova, the Earth-born hero who acts (in various incarnations) as a major warrior against the Kree and Skulls, fighting for Xandar and the planet's Nova Corps in addition to getting into his own adventures.

Other members of the Corps showed up in Guardians of the Galaxy. We've seen concept art that reportedly represents designs for the character cooked up for the first Guardians, and some have guessed that Nova would be one of the characters set to debut in the sequel. Don't bet on that, according to writer/director James Gunn, who says he wants to keep the emphasis on one single man from Earth.

Gunn, in a reply to his Facebook post about connected universes, was asked about including Nova in Guardians 2. He responded,

I don't want Nova right now because I think Quill being the only earthling is important. That serves the entire movie going audience and not just the handful of Nova fans... I have nothing against Nova in future movies, but it doesn't serve the movie right this moment.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 doesn't open until May 2017, and so it is far too early to say there's no way Nova will show up. But Gunn has pretty firm control over what's going on in the film, and so he's the best indicator at the moment of what we can expect to see.

Gunn previously said of the sequel,

I think the main thing with moving on is we can't just repeat ourselves. We can't just say "Okay, well let's start with something sad and shift into something really happy with some music and let's have the Awesome Mix work in exactly the same way only with songs from the 80s instead of the 70s." All of those things, that doesn't interest me. For me the shift is really about getting to know the characters on a deeper level, knowing them more intimately and uncovering facets of those characters that make them more real to us. At the center of what works about Guardians is that people like the characters. ... I mean more deeply into the characters themselves and who they are, how they work and how they think. What their flaws are, what their strengths are. They're a much more flawed group than The Avengers. They have major major issues.