Spider-Man: Homecoming's Director Had An Idea For An Unexpected Guardians Of The Galaxy Spin-Off

Over the years, chapters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have come and gone, and with them key characters that either died or didn't get the kind of attention that fans might've anticipated. One such character was Rhomann Dey, a Xandarian who, in the comics, chose Richard Rider as the new Nova, a prominent space hero in the Marvel universe.

In the movies, Dey appeared in "Guardians of the Galaxy" in 2014, and was played by Oscar-nominee John C. Reilly. While not having a massive role in the movie, there was enough meat on the bones of the character for "Spider-Man: Homecoming" director Jon Watts, who wanted to make a big deal out of this relatively small appearance.

As revealed in "The Story of Marvel Studios," Watts was called in by the studio, which got the ball rolling for him to handle the wall-crawling menace in 2017. However, in the early stages, Watts had different plans he was interested in sharing after seeing "Guardians" and Dey, which caught his attention. "'What is his life like? What is the ground level of this crazy Marvel Cinematic Universe?'" Watts recalled. "That's more of what I'm interested in as a filmmaker, trying to be more grounded and telling really low-level personal stories. So I didn't think I was ever gonna get the opportunity at [Marvel Studios'] level." While it might've been almost a decade since that movie, rumored plans for the MCU suggest we might still meet Dey eventually.

As it stands, Xandar hasn't been seen since 2017, and whatever state it's in certainly isn't a great one, given that according to Thor in "Avengers: Infinity War," Thanos "decimated" the planet in order to get the Power Stone. As far as we're aware, the Nova Corps is no more, but that hasn't stopped reports that Nova will eventually be on active duty. Back in 2024, it was revealed that plans were in place for a "Nova" Disney+ show focusing on the aforementioned Richard Rider (via Deadline). 

Marvel Studios TV head, Brad Winderbaum, even confirmed as such, telling the Phase Zero podcast at the time, "So, there are plans to develop Nova. I love Nova too. I love Rich Rider, too. I hope it gets to the screen. You know, the world is chaos. There's always things. It's hard to make anything. You've got to kind of conjure these things to make them happen, but I would like to see a Nova show one day." Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige, also explained to ComicBook at the time, "It's nearly three or four years out."

Unfortunately, after checking our calendars, it seems that we're inching ever closer to Feige's previously mentioned three-year mark, and there's still no sign of Rider, or indeed the return of Rhomann Dey. For now, we should just wait for the likes of "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" and "Avengers: Doomsday" to get out of the way, and we could see a brand new Dey, after all.