Of course, if Ryan Gosling did play Nova, it would not be his first space movie, having played Neil Armstrong in First Man, director Damien Chazelle’s revealing biopic about the legendary astronaut.
With the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot in development, the leading member of Marvel Comics’ first superhero family is one of the most sought after roles in Hollywood right now, and I think Gosling’s performance as the first man to walk on the Moon could be considered a winning audition tape.
The role saw him effectively juggle two different personas: one of a cautious and progressively minded devotee of science and a family man whose work often gets in the way of his social skills – both of which describe Reed Richards, who actually became the very flexible crimefighter known as Mister Fantastic after he was exposed to cosmic rays during a fateful trip into outer space.