Marvel ended up having to cut a major scene from Avengers: Infinity War to keep the movie’s runtime down, now a new MCU project can bring it back.

Avengers: Infinity War originally had to cut around 45 minutes of footage before its final cut, now the MCU has the opportunity to bring back one of its most anticipated cut scenes in a future project. It’s not abnormal for a Marvel movie to have to trim scenes for time. Even with the footage cut, Avengers: Infinity War ended up being nearly two-and-a-half hours long. With so many characters to focus on, it’s no wonder Marvel decided to trim some of the scenes that didn’t connect to the Avengers.

Now that Avengers: Infinity War has been out for six years, audiences would likely be happy to watch a full cut of the film without the cut footage. After all, Zack Snyder’s Justice League was significantly longer than Infinity War, and audiences were still happy to sit through it if it meant new content. Although an extended cut of Infinity War seems unlikely, a recently announced Marvel project may be the perfect home for its most coveted deleted scene.

Nova Could Show The Siege Of Xandar

The Siege Of Xandar Was Cut From Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

The biggest cut scene from Avengers: Infinity War was an extended sequence where Thanos lays siege to Xandar, killing half of the population. However, now that Marvel has announced a Nova project is in the early stages of development, this scene could be repurposed as an origin story. Seeing as Nova has strong ties to Xandar, it would be a meaningful way to tie the Nova project into the other events in the MCU.

Xandar is the home of the Nova Corps, so Thanos wiping them out would be a major inciting incident for Nova if he was already a member of the Corps. Alternatively, if the MCU’s Nova has not yet been chosen, the siege could directly lead to the Nova Corps recruiting Richard Rider as they do in the comics. Either way, it seems unlikely that the destruction of the Nova Corps’ homeworld and the death of many members wouldn’t have at least some impact on the future hero’s story.

Why Avengers Infinity War Cut Thanos’ Attack On Xandar

The Xandar Scene Would Have Extended Avengers: Infinity War’s Run Time Over 3 Hours

Though the siege of Xandar would undoubtedly have been an impactful introduction to Thanos and his methods, it makes sense why Marvel would cut it. The Avengers don’t enter the story until after the siege has already taken place. This means that if the scene had been kept, audiences would have had to wait nearly an hour before seeing any of the heroes they had come to the theater for. This may have made the movie feel much more bloated, even if what was happening on screen was visually exciting.

Thanos attacking Xandar wouldn’t be nearly as out of place in a Nova project, since there is a direct relationship between the hero and the events happening on screen. This means the scene would feel much less out of place. Not including the scene in Avengers: Infinity War was the right call by Marvel to give the film a tighter story. However, since the scene would be perfectly at home in a Nova project, they should reference it at the very least.

The Siege Of Xandar Would Give The Nova Corps A Reason To Have A More Powerful Hero

MCU Nova Corps Don’t Demonstrate Nova Force Powers

In Marvel Comics, Nova gets his powers from something called the Nova Force. It is a source of power that all Nova Corps members draw from. However, when Richard Rider becomes the last Nova, he gains far more power than any Nova Corps member in the MCU has displayed so far. A good explanation for this would be that a significant portion of the Corps, if not the entire force, was wiped out during Thanos’ attack.

Thanos’ attack on Xandar could even serve as an origin story for Richard Rider becoming Nova. In the comics, Rider is a normal teen who is chosen by the last surviving Nova Centurion to inherit the power of the Nova Force. Marvel could easily retrofit an abridged version of the cut scene from Avengers: Infinity War to serve as the opening moments in its Nova project, and set up a similar origin for the MCU’s version of Nova.