Avengers writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have revealed their original plans to bring Nova into the MCU – with Avengers: Infinity War earmarked as the moment the cosmic superhero was supposed to touch down in the MCU.
“I remember in the big manifesto thing that we did, where the first work we did on these movies where we just... every possible storyline that you could take from what's around, that Nova has the Xandarian Worldmind,” Markus explained to ComicBook.com.
The Xandarian Worldmind, for those unaware, is essentially a sentient Wikipedia, detailing the lives and history of the planet of Xandar. Nova would have absorbed all that knowledge, which would have been handy in the wake of Thanos’ off-screen razing of the planet (which featured in Guardians of the Galaxy) to steal the Power Stone.
Markus elaborated further about his role in Infinity War: “In this conception, he would be the herald, not unlike the Hulk, who was actually standing in for the Silver Surfer, but that one member of the Nova Corps survived Thanos' attack. The Xandarian Worldmind would be the voice of Glenn Close, because you had her and why not? And that he would be Richard Rider and he would come to Earth.”
So, instead of Nova (or even Silver Surfer) warning the likes of Doctor Strange and Iron Man about the imminent threat of the Mad Titan, it happened to be a certain Jade Giant. At least we got a Hulka-Hulka Burning Fudge joke out of it. That almost makes up for no Nova. Almost.
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