The long-awaited arrival of Nova in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is upon us, and while James Gunn chose not to introduce Richard Rider in Guardians of the Galaxy, the Nova Corps has since remained underutilized.
A Nova TV series is in the works at Marvel Television, and some new intel from industry insider @MyTimeToShineH, which sheds light on what the show might look like. The rumor teases a unique tone and an iconic Marvel villain.
According to the scoop: “Marvel reached out to writers and asked them to pitch for Nova [TV] show with Annihilus as the main villain in mind. They also requested the story to feel ‘young and sexy,’ capturing the energy of 80s military movies.”
“One pitch was essentially Starship Troopers, with Richard Rider in Casper’s arc as a sort of cocky jerk who falls in love with Namorita, joins the Nova Corps, and gets assigned to a backwater ‘Outer Rim’-like planet that becomes the first phase of the Annihilus wave.”
In this concept, Richard joins the Nova Corps, falls for Namorita, and finds himself stationed on a desolate, “Outer Rim”-style planet. This setting becomes the first battleground of the Annihilation Wave, with the Fantastic Four villain Annihilus and his insect-like forces serving as a menacing threat.
The insider elaborated: “In the pitch they treated the Annihilation Wave like the bugs in Starship Troopers, really leaning into the theme of how the Nova Corps uses propaganda to police the galaxy and recruit members.”
Shortly after the scoop surfaced, Beau DeMayo, the former showrunner of X-Men ’97, confirmed the validity of these details. While it seems like some of the pitches may be outdated, aspects of these ideas could still shape the final version of the show.
DeMayo even shared his own vision for the project, imagining a multi-season arc that would allow the story to unfold with depth and nuance. this is what he shared:
“My idea was you treat Annihilation Wave like the bugs in Starship Troopers and then tell the story of the guy who joins the army to impress a girl, Namorita. Build a band of friends that we then slowly kill as Rick and his friends experience the horrors of intergalactic war.
“You juxtapose this with Rick realizing the Nova Corps use propaganda a la Starship Troopers to police and control the truth on outer space, and are trying to hidethe coming Annihilation Wave, eventually forcing Rick and his team to go rogue a la Mission Impossible.
“I planned to borrow from Veerhoven and do his dark satirical style, with Nova Corp Bulletin break ins that paint a very diff pic then what Rick and his friends are facing, which explains how why other heroes aren’t showing up. Nova Corps keeping them out.
“To avoid ballooning the budget, I planned to have Rick and his team get stranded on an outer planet around episode 3-4, a utopia world that’s now mysteriously a ghost town that they’ve been sent to figure out what happened.
“While there, the vibe here is very Pitch Black for the rest of the season as they’re trying to survive on the planet by Annihilus monsters. slowly being killed one by one, as we’re seeing Nova bulletins about how everything is fine.
“Eventually, Rick and the survivors discover that these seemingly monstrous bugs are being controlled by a “king bug” (Annihlus) and that Nova Corps have known about him but redacted everything about him.
“This sets Rick and his team up in season 2 to go rogue to hunt down Annihilus before the wave comes to the core planets of the MCU. So starship troopers meets mission impossible, either Rick not knowing who he can trust in the Nova Corps.”
Kevin Feige previously confirmed that the series would focus on the Richard Rider version of Nova, who was Introduced in The Man Called Nova #1 (1976) by writer Marv Wolfman and artist John Buscema.
It was also explained that the series will have “shades of” both Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. Whether or not any of these ideas or concepts are used, a Nova series could have a massive scale.
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