Nova Is Michael Waldron's Next Marvel Film, and Chris Pratt Says Star-Lord Is Coming Back

Photo: NASA, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Two bits of Marvel cosmic news landed within a week of each other and they belong together. Michael Waldron, who wrote Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, told Variety that writing and directing a Nova film is a dream come true, which is as close to a confirmation as Marvel allows before an announcement. And on October 22, Chris Pratt said Star-Lord is coming back to the MCU, without saying when or in what.

Photo: Pat Loika, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Nova has been Marvel's most-rumoured, least-made project for a decade. Kevin Feige confirmed earlier this year that it is a film rather than a series, and Deadline reported in July that Waldron was writing with an eye to direct if it moves forward. Richard Rider, the human rocket from the Nova Corps, was set up by Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014 and then left on the shelf. There is no release date and no cast.

Photo: Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Glen Powell's name keeps coming up for Rider, which Waldron was asked about and did not deny. Pratt's Star-Lord was last seen walking off with the Guardians Vol. 3 ending, and James Gunn's departure to DC made a return feel unlikely. A report floated a cosmic team-up of Star-Lord, Nova and the Silver Surfer, which is unconfirmed and sounds like exactly the kind of thing Marvel would do to launch its next saga after Secret Wars in December 2027.

Photo: Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The timing makes sense. Doomsday and Secret Wars reset the universe, the Fantastic Four bring the Surfer, and Marvel needs a space-side franchise that is not the Guardians. Waldron is a good pick for that: Loki was the best thing Marvel made on television and it was funny and strange and about a character learning to be decent, which is Nova's whole arc.

Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pratt sounded like a man who has signed something. Would you go to a cosmic Marvel film without the Guardians name on it, or is it Star-Lord or nothing?