Long-Awaited MCU Series Finally Gets Update 1 Year After Marvel Delay

A long-awaited Marvel project may finally be moving out of development hell. We’d heard that Marvel Studios was working on a Disney+ series about the cosmic superhero Nova as early as 2022, when Moon Knight writer Sabir Pirzada was assigned to the project. The show has struggled to take off since then. In 2024, Ed Bernero replaced Pirzada as writer and showrunner. In 2025, we heard that the show was one of several Marvel projects on hold as Marvel Studios rethought its approach to TV.

Now, the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) has given fans reason to hope. The WGAW page for Michael Waldron now lists him as the writer on Nova, which is classified as a drama series. Waldron will be working on the show from 2026-2027.

Waldron is a big name at Marvel. He wrote the 2022 film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, created the TV show Loki, and wrote the upcoming movie Avengers: Doomsday alongside Stephen McFeely. Outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he wrote episodes of Rick and Morty and created the pro wrestling drama Heels as well as the sports comedy Chad Powers, starring Stephen Amell and Glen Powell, respectively. Aside from those last two, Waldron has lots of experience writing sci-fi and superhero stories, which makes him a great fit for Nova.

A still of Nova from Marvel Comics — A still featuring the classic Marvel Comics hero known as Nova

Who is Nova?

In Marvel Comics, Nova is the superhero name generally given to Richard Rider, an ordinary teenager from New York City who gets superpowers like enhanced strength and flight after a dying member of the Nova Corps selects Richard to be his successor.

That leads to the next question: what is the Nova Corps? It’s kind of like Marvel’s version of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic police force that protects the Nova Empire. The Nova Corps has actually appeared in the MCU already, in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. But we learned in Avengers: Infinity War that Thanos had wiped them out. Once Richard gets his powers, he would be the leader of the Nova Corps by default, known as Nova Prime.

Basically, Richard Rider is like if Peter Parker became a Green Lantern rather than got bit by a radioactive spider. We don’t know who will play him, although we have plenty of ideas. With Waldron on the case, hopefully we’ll see some movement soon. In July 2024, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said that a Nova show was “three or four years out.” If they work quickly, they could still meet that deadline.