A new movie is in the works at Marvel Studios, directed by the showrunner of Loki, Michael Waldron. Nova was originally going to be a movie in the early MCU, then was discussed as a TV show idea, before the concept was dropped. Now, Marvel has answered our prayers from 2025. Deadline has reported that Marvel Studios has picked the Nova idea back up in the form of a movie
Why Marvel’s NOVA Should Be a Movie, Not a Disney+ Series
NerdistTake: Is It Suspicious That Marvel Announces Nova, Just as DC Is Making Lanterns?
So, who/what is Nova? The hero was introduced in Marvel comics for the first time in 1976. As an alien officer of the Nova Corps died, he imbued ordinary teenager Richard Rider with the powers and outfit of a Nova Centurion. Rider became the last of the Nova Corps, an intergalactic police force
Sound familiar? That’s because it’s almost a one-for-one copy of DC’s Green Lantern story. Despite Nova being a relatively niche Marvel hero, at least in comparison to the others gracing the screen lately, fans have called out this similarity to DC before. Both companies have always copied each other in one way or another, but this one is particularly obvious
The timing of this announcement is particularly interesting, with Lanterns premiering this August. The idea for the show also came out right after DC had initially announced that Lanterns was in production. It seemed as though it would be a race to finish the shows, followed by a vying for popularity. But then, Marvel tabled the concept again. Now, with Lanterns finally finished, geared up and ready, Marvel is bringing the idea back
Though I think Lanterns may have influenced Marvel’s picking the story back up, Nova does fit into recent MCU content. The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy interacted directly with the Nova Corps in its first movie. Spoilers: The main characters ended up saving Xandar, the planet the Corps uses for their headquarters, from Ronan. Unfortunately, Thanos proceeded to destroy Xandar and most of the Corps just a few years later
That and, despite not being a mainstream hero, Nova has appeared in a good number of comics now. He has various storylines for writers to draw from, and many ways he might interact with other popular MCU characters
We don’t have much information about the Novamovie other than Michael Waldron’s direction, but after his showrunning work on Loki and writing on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we have high hopes for the movie
