While paying tribute to David Bowie this morning, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn revealed he had hoped to invite the musician to make a cameo in the sequel.

Anyone who knows Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and the legendary artist David Bowie can imagine why the two would be a perfect match. Can you imagine how great an appearance from Bowie’s alter ego Ziggy Stardust would have been in Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2?

Gunn and Marvel head Kevin Feige were imagining something along those lines for the next chapter in the Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana-led space tale, the director said today.

“Just a very short while ago Kevin Feige and I were talking about a cameo role in Guardians Vol. 2, and he brought up Bowie’s name,” Gunn wrote on Facebook. “I told him nothing in the world would make me happier, but I heard from common friends he wasn’t doing well. We heard back that he was okay and it could potentially happen. Who knows what that was about? But, for whatever reason, it made my Twitter revelation more of a surprise.”

By the sounds of it, there was a distinct possibility that Bowie would’ve done it.

In his Facebook post, Gunn went on to talk about the impact Bowie made on his life: “Bowie was an idol of mine, huge and omnipresent. Few artists in any field have had as an indelible impression upon me as he has. To my mind, Ziggy Stardust is perhaps the greatest rock and roll album of all time. We featured ‘Moonage Daydream’ in Guardians, but I always thought the album’s character was felt far beyond that, in the aesthetics, in the integral and seemingly-natural linking in popular culture of ’70’s rock and space opera.”

He also revealed that the script for Guardians 2 at one point included a Bowie song. “I’ve been trying to work another song from Ziggy into the sequel, which would make Bowie the only artist to have a song on both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. I thought this was fair and appropriate. Although I cut the scene it was used in from the script, we have the rights. Who knows. Maybe I can figure a way out.”

Who better to have a song on both Guardians soundtracks than Bowie?

The singer died Sunday following a year and a half long battle with cancer. He was 69.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2 will open in theaters May 5, 2017.