Marvel Studios is finally moving forward with Nova, and the long-rumored project has landed in familiar hands. Sources tell Deadline that Michael Waldron, the creator behind Loki and Chad Powers, is developing a Nova feature film for the studio. Waldron came aboard to tackle a fresh pitch and is writing with an eye toward directing the movie if it gets the green light.
The confirmation caps off a week of speculation that started when Waldron’s WGA card leaked his attachment to a Nova project. Trade reporting has now firmed that up, though neither Waldron nor Marvel Studios has commented publicly. One important note before anyone starts planning premiere outfits: the project is still in early development. This is a writer being hired to develop a pitch, not a greenlit film with a release date.
A Decade of Almosts
Nova has been circling the MCU longer than almost any unproduced character. Kevin Feige first said a Nova film had “immediate potential” back in May 2018, and he repeated some version of that tease for years afterward. In March 2022, Deadline reported that Sabir Pirzada was attached to write a Nova project. By February 2023, The Hollywood Reporter revealed the project had shifted into a Disney+ series.
Then it went quiet. The series was shelved, and as recently as 2024 Feige was still telling fans a Nova project was “happening” and “coming together” without anything concrete to show for it. Now the pendulum has swung back to where it started: a theatrical feature film.
Who Is Nova? A Quick Explainer
If the name only rings a faint bell, here is the rundown.
Nova is Marvel’s cosmic cop. The mantle belongs to members of the Nova Corps, an intergalactic police force headquartered on the planet Xandar, powered by an energy source called the Nova Force. Corps members get flight, super strength, energy blasts, and the ability to survive in space, all channeled through their signature helmets. The Nova Corps already appeared in the MCU in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, with John C. Reilly playing Corpsman Rhomann Dey, though that version was depicted as more of a conventional police force without the superpowered trappings.
The most famous Nova is Richard Rider, an ordinary teenager from Long Island who receives the Nova Force from a dying Corpsman named Rhomann Dey after the alien pirate Zorr destroys Xandar. Created by Marv Wolfman and John Buscema in 1976, Rider was pitched as a cosmic Spider-Man: a working-class kid juggling everyday problems with universe-level responsibility. He grew into one of Marvel’s most important cosmic heroes, anchoring the acclaimed Annihilation event in the 2000s, where he became the last surviving member of the Corps and carried the entire Nova Force alone.
There is also a second Nova: Sam Alexander, a Latino teenager from Arizona created in 2011, who inherits his missing father’s Nova helmet. Sam skews younger and has been a fixture of Marvel’s teen hero lineup. Feige has previously teased that both Rider and Alexander would eventually appear in the MCU, and the shelved Disney+ series was reportedly built around Rider.
The MCU Setup Is Already There
Here is what makes this project so tempting on paper: Marvel already destroyed Xandar. Avengers: Infinity War established off-screen that Thanos wiped out the planet while taking the Power Stone. That is a ready-made origin story. Fans have long speculated that a Nova project could open with the destruction of the Corps and bring back Reilly’s Rhomann Dey as a survivor who passes the torch, mirroring the comics origin almost beat for beat.
Casting Chatter and the Skeptic’s Case
No casting is official, and none is likely for a while given how early this is. The name that keeps surfacing is Glen Powell, largely because Waldron is the lead writer on Chad Powers, Powell’s Hulu series. Waldron has even mentioned Powell as his pick in the past. Powell himself has not expressed interest in a superhero role, so treat that as fan math for now.
There is also a fair skeptical read on this announcement. Nova is relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, and Marvel is currently in a stretch where lesser-known solo hero films have struggled to draw crowds the way Spider-Man and Deadpool reliably do. Waldron is a divisive pick as well, with the goodwill from Loki’s first season sitting alongside the more mixed reception to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which he co-wrote. Whether Nova is the right character to push forward right now is a genuine debate, and it is one worth having as this project develops.
For now, the takeaway is simple: after nearly a decade of rumors, series pivots, and shelved plans, Nova is back on the big-screen track with a proven MCU writer attached. Keep it locked to GeekFreaksPodcast.com for updates as the project develops.
Sources: Deadline | ComicBook.com | Screen Rant | Collider | World of Reel
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