Marvel Just Decided the Fate of Nova in the MCU

Captain America: Brave New World is outperforming box office expectations and excitement is ramping up for Daredevil: Born Again. But anyone hoping that would lead to another Marvel project explosion better temper their expectations.

Deadline reports that Disney has paused pre-production on three series planned for release on Disney+: Nova, Strange Academy, and Terror, Inc..

While that might sound like bad news, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Disney boss Bob Iger has long been saying that Marvel had been watering down its offerings, filling the screen with too many minor characters and diminishing the excitement for its marquis shows and movies. Cutting down on the number of projects hitting the screen would be part of Disney’s new strategy with Marvel properties going forward. We already got a taste of the new approach in 2024, when Marvel limited its film release schedule to just Deadpool & Wolverine. The focus only helped that movie, which went on to earn $636 million in the U.S., making it the second highest-grossing film in domestic markets.

However, the Disney+ series have continued on at a mostly regular pace, not yet feeling the squeeze, making it hard for the good stuff to stand out. Last year’s Agatha All Along and X-Men ’97 managed to break through the noise, but Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man just ended its very strong first season with little to no fanfare.

Paraphrasing an unidentfied source, Deadline reports that these series never actually got a full greenlight and were just in early development. “Originally, Marvel approached series development in much the same way it handled features: a slate was announced, and what was teased was more or less what got made,” Deadline explained. “A couple of years ago, senior leadership decided to retool the development process, as they were also revamping their new Daredevil series, Born Again.”

In other words, Marvel had been in the habit of putting shows in development based on comic book properties that had crossover potential, but not necessarily general audience appeal. That explanation illuminates the company’s decisions regarding Nova, Terror, Inc., and Strange Academy. Nova would have focused on a fan-favorite character, whose scenes from the 2006 Annihilation storyline are regularly shared online. Strange Academy, a relatively new comic series about young magic users, had potential for Harry Potter-style stories in the MCU. And the Z-list concept Terror, Inc. would have worked as a holiday special, not unlike Werewolf by Night.

It’s not hard to see how these projects could have ended up on screen. But it’s also not hard to imagine viewers skipping over the series, as the MCU has lost the prestige it once enjoyed after saturating the market with a barrage of less popular characters. Furthermore, none of these concepts have particularly strong ties to the Avengers, at least not the MCU variety, which remains the biggest draw for casual viewers.

The promotional campaigns for Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* feel like write-offs for Marvel, as if they’re happy to see any return on those investments at all. Likewise, Marvel Television and Marvel Animation still have Ironheart, Marvel Zombies, Eyes of Wakanda, and Wonder Man coming, projects that have been in development since before the company retooled its approach. Time will tell if they attract Disney+ subscribers.

But at the same time, it’s clear that the studio is putting quite a bit of care and attention into The Fantastic Four: First Steps, hoping to repeat the success of Deadpool & Wolverine and Avengers: Endgame. In theory, abandoning riskier projects like Nova and Strange Academy will allow Marvel to focus resources on stronger material, making series such as season two of X-Men ’97 as compelling as possible.

Because if there’s one thing Deadpool & Wolverine has shown, people aren’t experiencing superhero fatigue as much as they’re experiencing bad superhero movie and TV series fatigue.

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