Rumor: Marvel Studios Scraps ‘Nova’ Disney Plus Series, Plans To Return To Cosmic Hero “Down The Line”
Spencer Baculi
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In an unfortunate turn of events for fans of the popular space-faring hero, though Disney confirmed just last year that he was finally headed for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a new rumor suggests that Nova’s live-action dreams have once again been placed on the company’s back burners.
Nova puts an end to Annihilus in Annihilation Vol. 1 #6 “Finale” (2007), Marvel Comics. Words by Keith Giffen, art by Andrea DiVito, Laura Villari, and Cory Petit
A fan-favorite amongst comic book readers, Nova’s arrival in the shared cinematic universe has been teased as far as back as 2018, at which time Marvel boss Kevin Feige not only revealed that the studio was working to bring the hero to the silver screen, but that he had been a ‘character of interest’ ever since the first Guardians of the Galaxy film.
“Nova is…if we have a big board with a bunch of characters that have more immediate potential, Nova is on that board,” the baseball cap clad executive told ComicBook.com ahead of Avengers: Infinity War‘s theatrical release. “Because of the connection to the Guardians universe, because there are more than one examples to pull from in the comics that are interesting. And you’re absolutely right, he was in the earliest drafts of [Guardians of the Galaxy].
Star-Lord and Nova sacrifice themselves to prevent Thanos from escaping the Cancerverse in Thanos Imperative Vol. 1 #6 (2010), Marvel Comics. Words by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, art by Miguel Sepulveda, Jay David Ramos, and Joe Caramagna.
Then, in 2019, it was revealed by Infinity War and Endgame co-writer Christopher Markus that Nova was even supposed to play a pivotal role in the Avengers’ final battle against Thanos.
“We actually had, I remember in the big manifesto thing that we did, where the first work we did on these movies where we just… every possible storyline that you could take from what’s around, that Nova has the Xandarian Worldmind,” Markus told ComicBook.com. “Yeah, the Xandarian Worldmind, was that after… it was almost going… In this conception, he would be the herald, not unlike the Hulk, who was actually standing in for the Silver Surfer, but that one member of the Nova Corps survived Thanos’ attack. The Xandarian Worldmind would be the voice of Glenn Close, because you had her and why not? And that he would be Richard Rider and he would come to Earth.”
Nova Prime (Glenn Close) prepares to scramble the Nova Corps against Ronan’s forces in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Marvel Entertainment
From there, world surrounding the Human Rocket would go radio silent until March 2022, when it was announced that Moon Knight writing team member Sabir Pirzada had been tapped to pen a project starring the Human Rocket.
Notably, at the time of Pirzada’s announcement, it was unknown whether or not his project would be a film or a TV series, nor which incarnation of the hero – Richard Rider or Sam Alexander – would be its protagonist.
Richard Rider and Sam Alexander battle over their mantle on Dan Mora and Ian Herring’s cover to Nova Vol. 7 #7 (2017), Marvel Comics
While the latter mystery remains unsolved to this day, the latter would receive an answer in February 2023 when, in an article regarding Disney’s decision to better curate their Marvel and Star Wars output, The Hollywood Reporter described the Nova project as one of a number of “shows in development”.
Now, roughly six months later, it seems Nova’s take-off has been indefinitely grounded.
A broken Nova finds himself on his last legs on Gabriele Dell’otto’s cover to Annihilation Vol. 1 #6 “Finale” (2007), Marvel Comics
Replying to a post from Twitter user @Nacht_Silver in which they responded to rumor of a Wiccan solo series by angrily inquiring as to the status of Nova, noted film scooper MyTimeToShineHello claimed that “The Nova show has been scrapped.”
“They are now focusing on other stuff and will get back to Nova down the line,” they added.
Archive Link MyTimeToShineHello via Twitter
As of writing, neither Marvel nor Disney have officially commented on Nova‘s production status.
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