Michael Waldron develops Marvel’s ‘Nova’ after ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ co-writing role

Michael Waldron, the ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ co-writer, is developing a ‘Nova’ feature film for Marvel Studios, TheWrap has learned. The project is in early development, and a previous script draft was written by ‘Moon Knight’ writer Sabir Pirzada. That combination matters because Marvel typically builds its big-screen universe like a long spreadsheet: writers, worldbuilding, and franchise continuity have to line up early, not after the cameras start rolling.

Here is the immediate connective tissue: ‘Nova’ centers on the intergalactic police force known as the Nova Corps. In comics terms, the Corps is “sort of, kind of” the Marvel version of the Green Lantern, and the film’s protagonist could be Richard Rider or another hero using the Nova name. The Corps premise is not just a character pitch. It is a world kit that can plug into existing MCU geography and themes, including the Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, and Thor, all of whom have already crossed paths with Nova Corps material in Marvel Comics lore.

Waldron’s involvement also highlights how Marvel’s writing bench is being used. Waldron is developing ‘Nova’ with the understanding that Marvel’s audience knows the Nova Corps through the existing cinematic record. The Nova Corps was a prominent part of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ which means the MCU has already laid down visual and tonal cues for how the Corps could work on-screen. That creates both opportunity and pressure. If the film leans too far away from what viewers remember, it risks feeling like a reboot. If it leans too hard into existing beats, it risks telling the same story with different costumes.

There is also an MCU-specific decision baked into the backstory. When asked why Richard Rider did not appear in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ James Gunn cited a desire to keep Peter Quill as the only human member of the titular team. That is a revealing constraint because it means “Nova” does not just need to introduce the Nova Corps. It has to do it in a way that makes sense inside the MCU logic of who is where, and why. In other words, Marvel cannot simply drop Richard Rider into a timeline like it is choosing a random character from a deck. The character placement has to satisfy the same internal rules that governed the Guardians team composition in the first place.

Now layer in what the MCU has already done to the Nova Corps as an organization. The Nova Corps was presumably largely destroyed in ‘Avengers: Infinity War.’ In that film, the Guardians travel to the wreckage of Xandar after Thanos pillaged the planet to obtain the Power Stone. That is not just plot history. It is narrative gravity. If the Corps is damaged or gone in the current MCU era, ‘Nova’ becomes the kind of movie that can either explain how remnants survived, show what’s rebuilding, or introduce a new generation of Nova agents.

This is where the adaptation angle gets interesting. TheWrap notes this could set the feature up to adapt elements of ‘Annihilation,’ a comic story in which Richard Rider becomes the lone Nova Corps centurion after the group was eradicated in a fight against Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave. Even without claiming Marvel has locked those specific comic events into the script, the underlying structure is compelling for an executive audience: a universe-spanning police force gets wiped out, and the story focuses on the lone surviving or newly empowered figure. That kind of structure scales well for a feature film because it offers a clean emotional engine and a clear arc from “order collapses” to “one person carries the weight.”

There is also the writer-to-IP matchmaking story here. Marvel’s intergalactic lineup is already a working system. ‘Nova’ has a natural runway to connect with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, and Thor, and those connections can matter for release strategy and audience comfort. If Marvel is building toward bigger cosmic stakes, adding another corner of the Nova mythos can expand the surface area without forcing the franchise to invent entirely new rules from scratch.

For now, the project is in early development, and Marvel and Waldron have not commented. Waldron is repped at CAA and Untitled, and TheWrap reports that reps for Marvel Studios and Waldron could not be reached for comment. For boards, investors, and studio-side leaders, the practical implication is that ‘Nova’ is likely being engineered as a long-lead asset: early writer development, draft work already completed by Sabir Pirzada, and a concept rooted in established MCU continuity via ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and ‘Infinity War.’ That is the difference between a dangling “maybe we’ll do it” and a film that can actually earn a place in the release calendar and the broader franchise roadmap.