Even After His Death, The MCU Can"t Escape Thanos

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Summary

The upcoming Nova TV series in the MCU is linked to Thanos due to the character's origin story and the destruction of Xandar by the Mad Titan.
Despite the MCU's focus on the multiverse and new villains like Kang, it's difficult to completely separate from Thanos in the Multiverse Saga.
Given Nova's ties to Thanos, the series should be released sooner rather than later to avoid distracting from the current storyline and moving away from Thanos.

Although the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now focused on its Multiverse Saga, it still can’t escape Thanos, and this is more evident due to one upcoming TV series. The MCU’s first three phases, collectively known as the Infinity Saga, focused on introducing this universe’s main heroes and also following Thanos’ quest to get all the Infinity Stones and the Infinity Gauntlet. Although the Infinity Saga saw a variety of villains, Thanos was, ultimately, the main threat to defeat, and his storyline reached its peak in Avengers: Infinity War, where he finally got the Gauntlet and the Stones, and Avengers: Endgame, where he was defeated by the then-active MCU heroes.
With Thanos now gone, the MCU moved forward and began to focus on its multiverse and the many dangers that live in it. The MCU has done its best to separate this new era of movies and TV shows from Thanos, such as by establishing Kang and his variants as the big villains, but the Multiverse Saga still has some strong ties to the Mad Titan. The mid-credits scene in Eternals introduced Eros (Harry Styles), Thanos’ brother, and an upcoming TV series will inevitably have links to the Mad Titan that will be very hard to avoid due to the main character’s comic book history: Nova.
Nova's Story (& The MCU's Future) Is Still Tied To Thanos

The MCU has an interesting list of planned TV shows that will further expand its list of superheroes, and among those projects is a series about Nova. The still-untitled Nova TV series was confirmed to be in development in March 2022, though Disney is taking its time with this project. Richard Rider a.k.a. Nova has been theorized to be joining the MCU for years, and his presence made a lot of sense in the Infinity Saga given his origin story, which inevitably connects to one of Thanos’ most horrible actions in the MCU.
In the comics, when the last surviving member of Xandar’s Nova Corps, Rhomann Dey, was dying, he chose New York high school student Richard Rider to take his place. Rider was given the uniform and powers of a Nova Centurion though not all the instructions on how to use them, and he took the mantle of Nova. Nova’s arrival in the MCU was set up in Guardians of the Galaxy as Rhomann Dey (John C. Reilly) was part of the story, and Nova's story is now linked to Thanos as the Mad Titan destroyed Xandar before the events of Infinity War. Thanos’ decimation of Xandar is crucial to Nova’s story in the MCU, meaning this universe still can’t fully move away from Thanos.
Why Nova's Thanos Ties Mean It Needs To Release Sooner Rather Than Later

Nova’s MCU debut doesn’t have a projected release date yet, but given the character’s ties to Thanos, it will have to be released as soon as possible. Despite Thanos being an important part of Nova’s backstory, the MCU has to move away from him as he no longer has a place in this universe and the Multiverse Saga, and going back to him if Nova releases late into the Multiverse Saga can be too distracting. The destruction of Xandar is not something that Nova can skip, especially because it wasn’t shown in Infinity War, so the connection to Thanos can’t be ignored or reworked, either.
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