More than a year after the series was put on ice, Marvel Studios is moving ahead with a Novamovie. The cosmic Marvel hero’s solo outing is being developed by Loki creator Michael Waldron, and will bring a fan-favorite character to the MCU close to a decade after Avengers: Infinity War set up the perfect origin story. Deadline broke the news of the new movie, confirming that Waldron was brought in to tackle a new pitch and will write with an eye to directing the movie should it be greenlit
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Marvel Television had been working on a Nova series, but that wasq quietly shelved in 2015 after years of speculation. Deadline’s scoop comes off the back of Waldron’s name being attached to a Nova project thanks to his WGA card leaking his involvement. That leak has now been firmed up, though neither the writer nor Marvel Studios have commented. Back in 2024, Kevin Feige confirmed to ComicBook that a Nova project was in the works: “It’s happening, it’s coming together. Richard Rider, yep… A show, yeah, yeah.” He also confirmed it was “three or four years out,” suggesting it might not be too far away from releasing to the original timeline.
Why Nova is Such a Good New Addition to the MCU
Waldron is a steady hand for Marvel these days: he first worked on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as the scriptwriter, then moved up to showrunnerLoki, and returned to scripting duties as co-writer of Avengers: Doomsday. Nova represents a most unexplored expansion for Marvel Studios: his main villains have largely been untouched by Marvel projects, aside from Thanos, and the Kree and Skrulls (though the MCU obviously went in a different direction with the latter). There would be huge potential in a story focused on Annihilus or the Black Novas, and there are countless other weird and wonderful foes to bring in. And as a cosmic hero, he only has the Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel to really compete with, and most of the MCU’s outerspace realm has been ignored.
The parallel to Star-Lord writes itself: both are Earth-born heroes who find a higher calling to protect the galaxy. It would be a logical bridge to have the pair explore the same dynamic they share in the comics as collaborators, sometimes friends, and bitter enemies. It’s complicated, okay? There’s also quite a bit of establishing work for Nova already done: Xandar and the Nova Corps were introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy back in 2014, and then were eventually decimated by Thanos offscreen during the culmination of the Infinity Saga to steal the Power Stone. We also saw a multiversal version of the Corps in What If…? when a variant of Nebula joined the space police force.
Hopefully, the Nova movie would open with Thanos’ destruction of the Corps, and bring back John C Reilly’s Rhomann Dey as one of the only survivors to pass the torch to Richard Reed. In the comics, it’s the pirate Zorr who destroys Xandar, but the important thing is that it’s gone, which can easily be incorporated into a new version of his origin. We’re getting into fan fiction territory, but the fact that Dey knows Star-Lord already could lead him to Earth, seeking help (which could also explain the promise that Chris Pratt’s hero is set to return). That may be wishful thinking, of course, but Pratt’s presence would elevate the project for established MCU fans. And while petty rivalries won’t play into the studio’s thinking, having Marvel’s answer Green Lantern debut as a full-blown cosmic adventure in the wake ofLanterns‘ Earth-set adventure would be an interesting narrative.
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