Earlier this year, a rumor circulated online that Michael Waldron was working on Marvel's long-awaited Nova series. The report appeared to be debunked, but it later came to light that Waldron had indeed been tapped to pen a movie, not a streaming show.
Waldron wrote Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and also served as showrunner on Loki. He is involved with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
While speaking to The Wrap about season 2 of Chad Powers, Waldron was asked how work on Nova is progressing.
"I don’t know if I can say anything about anything I’m doing with Marvel. But I will say, I love Nova. I love Rich Rider. However we expand the cosmic side of the MCU will be really cool."
When the interviewer pushed for a little more information, Waldron obliged - while stopping short of actually confirming that he's boarded the project!
"Annihilation is, I mean, I guess that’s the go-to, right? But the character spans a lot of generations, and I think maybe that’s why it’s taken some time to get him to the screen: figuring out where do you start that story? Do you start him on Earth? Do you start in space, as part of the Nova Corps? Whoever does it, I hope they do a good job."
Finally, Waldron was asked if Thanos decimating the Nova Corps to get his hands on the Power Stone would be addressed.
"They would have to reckon with that. Yeah," he responded.
Marvel Studios finally confirmed plans to introduce Nova to the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2022, and since then, there have been conflicting reports about which medium the project was being developed for. It seems Sabir Pirzada was writing the script for a series, but the idea was ultimately shelved, and Waldron was brought on to tackle a new pitch.
The Nova movie is still in the very early stages of development, and aside from the few nuggets Waldron shared above, plot details are still under wraps. We had heard that Annihilus was going to be the villain of the series, but plans may have changed. It was also claimed that both Richard Rider and Sam Alexander would feature, but again, the idea may be completely reworked for the big screen.
The Nova Corps was introduced in the first Guardians of the Galaxy, which led to speculation that Rider would eventually find his way into the GOTG franchise. James Gunn showed little interest in the character, but the Nova film will most likely spin out from Thanos decimating most of the Corps in the build-up to Avengers: Infinity War.
Sam Alexander first appeared in the Marvel Point One one-shot in back in November 2011 before going on to lead his own series beginning in February 2013. The Arizona teen inherited the Nova helmet from his missing father and officially took up the mantle after being trained by Guardians of the Galaxy members Gamora and Rocket Raccoon.