Nova may be about to make their MCU debut — but there’s a catch

What If…? is expanding its repertoire into a new medium, which may lead to Nova in the MCU, though fans may not be terribly excited about how it happens.

Ever since the idea of the Nova Corps was featured in Guardians of the Galaxy, fans have been eager to see some variation of Nova proper appear in the MCU. Fans may finally be getting their wish–but not in the way they hoped.

A version of Nova is one of many MCU entities teased in the new trailer for Marvel Studios’ What If…? An Immersive Story. The trailer has The Watcher and Wong explaining to the viewer the threat of the Infinity Stones as a host of Marvel characters fly by the screen.

While the trailer seems to feature MCU adjacent versions of Thanos and Hela, there is a female Nova Corps member who appears, too. It’s a very brief shot of them in full Nova regalia, dropping their helmet to reveal what seems to be a brand-new MCU iteration of Nova.

The catch, of course, is this project may be MCU-adjacent at best. The title is an Apple Vision Pro exclusive VR game. While the MCU is no stranger to video game projects, they are seldom considered canon.

The timing of the Nova cameo in this trailer is auspicious, though. It comes just days after Marvel Studios head Brad Winderbaum revealed to Screen Rant that the MCU’s Nova project was coming along, and intended to focus on a younger version of the character.

“Nova certainly is exciting to us, we’ve got some great ideas simmering,” Winderbaum said. “I think there’s a lot of potential there. I love Nova, also, from the comics, especially the Richard Rider era… we’ll see what happens. Like you said, there’s only so many release slots in the schedule, but we want to make sure everything we make is as good as it could possibly be. But I will say that is a particular project we are excited about and excited about developing.”

In the comics, there have been three Marvel heroes with the Nova mantle. The first, Richard Rider, was a teen hero on the New Warriors who later became a war-tested galactic hero and the last surviving Nova Corps member during the Annihilation event.

The second, Sam Alexander, was the son of a lost Nova Corps member who obtained his father’s helmet and became a superhero. A third, Frankie Raye, was not a Nova Corps member. Instead, she was a herald to Galactus and the former flame of the Human Torch (no pun intended).

Marvel Studios’ What If…? – An Immersive Story releases May 30, 2024, exclusively on Apple Vision Pro. You can catch up on What If…? with our guide on the upcoming Season 3, or read about why the series cannot use the X-Men.