The Marvel Cinematic Universe has a new champion. After ComicBook broke the news that Marvel Studios is developing a Nova series for Disney+, Deadline reports that Third Watch creator and former Criminal Minds showrunner Ed Bernero has been tapped as the head writer and showrunner. While Richard Rider and Sam Alexander have harnessed the Nova Force as the human rocket, Marvel Studios’ Nova will center on the first character to don the bullethead helmet: Rich Rider.
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Bernero reportedly replaces Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel writer Sabir Pirzada, who signed on to develop the project in 2022. President Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum, the head of streaming, television and animation for Marvel Studios, later confirmed to ComicBook that Richard Rider’s Nova is rocketing into the MCU sometime between 2027 and 2028.
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“We love [the character] Nova. We are in really early development on Nova,” Winderbaum exclusively told ComicBook earlier this year. “We have a new system behind-the-scenes at Marvel Studios. We’re more like a traditional studio now. We’re developing more than we actually will produce. There are plans to develop Nova. I love Nova, too. I love Rich Rider, too. I hope it gets to the screen.”
“The world is always chaos. There’s always things,” Winderbaum added. “You’ve got to conjure these things to make them happen, but I would love to see a Nova show, one day.”
The Bernero-penned Nova now joins a live-action Marvel Television slate that includes Daredevil: Born Again (March 4, 2025) with Marvel’s The Punisher writer-producer Dario Scardapane serving as showrunner; Chinaka Hodge’s Ironheart (June 24); Andrew Guest’s Wonder Man (Dec. 2025); and the Paul Bettany-fronted Vision Quest (2026) from Star Trek: Picard showrunner Terry Matalas.
Bernero’s writing credits include episodes of the procedural crime drama Criminal Minds and its spinoff Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, which he created, and his crime-thriller series Crossing Lines.
Marvel’s Nova: Richard Rider, Explained
High school student Richard “Rich” Rider debuted in the pages of 1976’s Nova #1 by writer Marv Wolfman and artists John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. The issue introduced Rider as the successor of the mortally wounded Nova-Prime Rhomann Dey (played by John C. Riley in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies), who telepathically transferred his cosmic Centurion powers to Rider on Earth.
Transformed into Nova, the human rocket, Rider was endowed with the power to fly at supersonic speed and the ability to channel the cosmic Nova Force energy shared by the Nova Corps: space militia of the planet Xandar. As the new Centurion Nova Prime (which he shortened to Nova), Rider was once mentally linked with the Xandarian Worldmind (a sort of artificial intelligence originally known as computer PRIME: Planetary Recorder for Information Maintenance) as its host body.
Nova and the Champions of Xandar
Many of Nova’s earliest enemies had the power to absorb or siphon energy, including Dey’s killer, the alien Zorr the Conqueror, Megaman, and the Xandarian Powerhouse.
Over the first 25 issues of Nova Vol. 1, the Earth-based superhero battled the likes of the Condor, Diamondhead, Corruptor, Photon, Spider-Man villain Sandman, and the immortal mutant wizard Anath-Na Mut, the Sphinx. Nova went on to form the Champions of Xandar during a battle with the shape-shifting alien race the Skrulls, a group that included the Xandarians Thoran Rul and the Centurion Tanak Valt.
After surrendering the Nova Force to Xandar in order to life on Earth as a regular human, the Xandarian Queen Adora secretly sent a portion of Nova’s powers back to Earth. After Xandar and the Nova Corps were destroyed by Thanos’ granddaughter, Nebula, Rider’s powers returned and he joined Night Thrasher, Namorita, Firestar, Speedball, and Marvel Boy as the New Warriors.
Nova eventually returned to space and helped rebuild Xandar as Centurion Prime, leader of the Nova Corps… only for the planet to once again be destroyed by Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave (during the Annihilation event). Over the years, Nova would find allies in Star-Lord and the Guardians of the Galaxy as the Terran fought to protect both space and his home planet Earth. More recently, Samuel “Sam” Alexander, son of the Nova Centurion Jesse Alexander, succeeded his father as the new Nova as a member of the Avengers and the new Champions alongside the likes of Miles Morales and Ms. Marvel.
