A Nova movie is finally in the works at Marvel Studios, and it could fix one mistake James Gunn made with Guardians of the Galaxy. Gunn’s 2014 space adventure introduced moviegoers to the cosmic side of the MCU, including the peaceful planet Xandar and its defenders, the Nova Corps. The film remains one of the most celebrated entries in the franchise, yet one creative choice Gunn made still bothers comic fans more than a decade later.
Loki creator Michael Waldron is reportedly developing the Nova film, and he plans to write the script and potentially direct it too. The project gives Marvel the perfect opportunity to overhaul the Nova Corps, whose bland uniforms in Guardians of the Galaxy never conveyed how mighty the intergalactic force is in the source material.
Waldron knows this universe well. He served as head writer on the first season of Loki, penned Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and shares script credit on this December’s Avengers: Doomsday with Stephen McFeely. His attachment to Nova first surfaced through a Writers Guild of America listing, days before trade reports firmed up the project.
Nova took a long, winding road to reach this point. Marvel first hired Moon Knight writer Sabir Pirzada to develop the character in 2022, back when the studio planned the project as a Disney+ series. Ed Bernero briefly took over as showrunner in late 2024, and Marvel paused development early the following year. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige still spoke about the project with confidence during that stretch, saying in a 2024 interview with ComicBook that "it’s happening, it’s coming together," while placing its arrival "three or four years out."
So where did Gunn go wrong? His movie turned the Nova Corps into an ordinary police force. Glenn Close’s Nova Prime ran the operation from a control room, John C. Reilly’s Corpsman Rhomann Dey handled arrests and paperwork, and the rank-and-file officers wore plain navy uniforms with no powers to speak of. Viewers compared the group’s look to generic sci-fi soldiers at the time, and the complaint never truly went away. The Nova helmets especially looked boring to fans familiar with the comic look.
In the comics, the Nova Corps possesses a far more intimidating presence and elegant design than depicted in the film. There, they wield the Nova Force, a vast energy source channeled through a living supercomputer called the Xandarian Worldmind. Members climb from Corpsman all the way up to Centurion, gaining flight, raw strength, and energy blasts as they rise. Waldron’s film could put that version on screen and give them better costumes.
Marvel’s Nova Movie Could Also Introduce One Big Guardians Omission
Beyond the costumes, the upcoming Nova film could introduce an exciting element left out of Guardians: Richard Rider. The New York teenager is the most famous Nova in Marvel Comics, and Marvel fans have been itching to see him in live-action. Rider debuted in The Man Called Nova #1 back in 1976 and headlined the publisher’s cosmic line for decades, yet 12 years of MCU space stories came and went without him.
His absence was a deliberate choice. Speaking on the Phase Zero podcast in 2022, Gunn explained that "he never wanted a second human" running around his corner of the galaxy:
"From the beginning, when I came on board 'Guardians,' I didn’t want to have two human beings. I wanted to have one human being so that he could be surrounded in this world of aliens."
Nova can finally get his chance to be in the spotlight now. Feige confirmed in that same 2024 interview that the project centers on "Richard Rider, yep." The MCU even cast Rider’s comic benefactor years ago. Reilly’s Dey is the dying Centurion who chooses the teenager and transfers the Nova Force to him on the page, a link Guardians of the Galaxy left completely untouched, which made sense since that would have taken the spotlight from the Guardians team.
One good thing is that Guardians already set up the perfect foundation for Rider's introduction. Thanos wiped out Xandar offscreen before Avengers: Infinity War, and the films never revisited the tragedy. Marvel’s publishing side went down a similar path in the 2006 Annihilation event, which destroyed the entire Corps and left Rider as its sole survivor, holding the full Nova Force on his own. Waldron could center his movie on that tragedy and introduce a last Nova with staggering power. Richard Rider and the rest of the Nova Corps are amazing characters, and they deserved a better design than the one we saw in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
