Believe it or not, Marvel Studios looks to be finally moving forward with a project fans have been waiting for since *checks watch* well, just about over 10 years now.
As per Deadline, Nova is at long last on his way to the MCU. Cosmic hero Richard Rider has been waiting in the wings ever since the Nova Corps space police were introduced into the franchise way back in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. His imminent arrival was later teased by the destruction of the Corps in Avengers: Infinity War, leaving him to inherit their legacy — Rider even made a cameo in the movie’s first draft script.
Back in 2022, we first heard that a Nova project was being developed in the background, but at the time Marvel had yet to decide whether it would be a movie or a TV show, although it seemed to be leaning more towards the latter. Sure enough, the studio is officially making it a Disney Plus series, with the choice of new showrunner offering fans a big hint at what could be a unique tone. Well, unique for the MCU…
Nova‘s new showrunner proves it’s the MCU’s answer to a highly-anticipated DC project
Deadline reports that former Criminal Minds exec producer Ed Bernero has been hired to helm Nova. He’s replacing Moon Knight writer Sabir Pirzada, who was announced to be penning the show when it was announced in 2022. That’s all we know about the series at this point, but Bernero’s hiring and his history with the police procedural genre offers us a clue at what DC project might’ve inspired Marvel to finally get going with this one.
One show from James Gunn’s upcoming DCU slate that seems to going well is Lanterns, the reboot of the Green Lantern Corps that is being pitched as a True Detective-like spin on the Emerald Knights. It’ll basically be a buddy cop crime drama, only with a cosmic spin, starring Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart. Lost‘s Damon Lindelof is even one of its head writers.
Seeing as Nova is often called the Green Lantern of Marvel — like the Lanterns, he’s an outer space police officer deemed worthy enough to wield a cosmic power source, in his case the Nova Force — it was always going to have some crossover with Lanterns. By appointing Bernero, however, it seems Marvel wants to approach it in a very similar way to DC’s rival production, by combining the superhero with a detective show vibe.
Procedural shows are among the longest-lasting on TV, so given Marvel’s newfound interest in making ongoing series rather than standalone miniseries, it’s likely they intend Nova to run and run. Speaking of, hopefully Pirzada will be kept around to work on Moon Knight season 2, which we’ve been waiting on almost as long as we’ve been waiting for some concrete Nova updates.
Criminal Minds fans, now is your time to start pestering Marvel to cast Matthew Gray Gubler as Richard Rider.
Published: Dec 17, 2024 10:50 am