Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn must be regretted the decision to confirm that former Firefly star Nathan Fillion is set to cameo in the Marvel space opera; since then, he’s had to deny reports that Fillion will portray the characters of Nova and Cosmo, and now he’s reiterated those denials, as well as suggesting that the cameo could lead to bigger things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe further down the line:.

“Nathan Fillion is not Nova. There’s so much bullshit on the internet. I woke up – first it’s ‘Nathan’s Nova!’, then there are articles all over saying Nathan’s Cosmo. It’s like, ‘What?!’ Nathan’s role is a very small cameo that I wanted to give to Nathan because I love working with him and I think it’s lucky for me to have Nathan in all of my movies. At the same time I wanted to give him something where Nathan could have a larger role in the Marvel Universe if either Joss Whedon or I or whoever chose to do that in the future. Which I would love to do.”

And, just for good measure, Gunn then went on to shoot down Latino-Review’s “scoop” that Richard Rider will appear in the post-credits scene, stating that: “You won’t see the Nova character in the film. You’ll see the Nova Corps.”

So, if Nathan Fillion isn’t Nova or Cosmo, who do you think he might be playing?

Guardians of the Galaxy is set for release on July 31st in the UK and August 1st in North America, with James Gunn (Super) directing a cast that includes Chris Pratt (The Lego Movie) as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana (Star Trek Into Darkness) as Gamora, Dave Bautista (Riddick) as Drax the Destroyer, Bradley Cooper (American Hustle) as Rocket Raccoon, Vin Diesel (Fast & Furious 6) as Groot, Benicio Del Toro (Sin City) as The Collector, Lee Pace (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) as Ronan the Accuser, Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) as Nebula, Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) as Korath, John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) as Rhomman Dey,  Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead) as Yondu, Glenn Close (Damages) as Nova Prime Rael and Josh Brolin (Men in Black 3) as Thanos. Watch the latest trailer here.