Who is Cassandra Nova? New Deadpool & Wolverine character explained

One of the biggest surprises to come out of the first Deadpool & Wolverine trailer would be the first look at the film’s big bad, Cassandra Nova.

While Nova has not been officially confirmed by Marvel Studios, she was confirmed as being played by The Crown actor Emma Corrin thanks to, of all things, a US Copyright Office filing.

Cassandra Nova is a product of one of the X-Men’s most popular and most bizarre eras. What’s more, her jump to film would mark the first time some of the weirder, more modern X-Men ideas have made the leap to the big screen. 

Debuting in the pages of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s critically acclaimed New X-Men, Cassandra Nova is not a mutant but rather a Mummudrai, a being from the Astral Plane who presents itself as the antithesis of a host.

She manifested inside the womb alongside Charles Xavier, intending to possess his body; however, after taking on his powers, she was able to mimic his human form and use his body as a template to form her own. 

Once she developed, Cassandra attempted to strangle Charles in the womb, but he lashed back with a psychic blast and killed her physical form. However, enough of the stillborn body’s cells survived that she was able to regrow her body. Convinced that she and Charles are the only real things in the universe, she sets about destroying everything Xavier loves. 

Plotting her revenge, an adult Cassandra Nova uses Sentinels to destroy the mutant island of Genosha, massacring half of Earth’s mutants. She then attacks the X-Men and uses Cerebra to swap bodies with Xavier. Before Xavier can reveal he is trapped in Nova’s body, his neck is broken by Emma Frost in retaliation for the Genoshia attack. He’s then shot by the Nova, who is now in control of his body. 

As Xavier, Nova outs the longtime mutant activist as a mutant and reveals the X-Men to sow distrust among Earth, then takes to space with the Shi’ar empire. Nova breaks the mind of Xavier’s longtime lover, the Shi’ar Majestrix Lilandra, and returns to Earth with the Shi’ar army, intent on taking back her original form. 

Eventually, Cassandra Nova is foiled when she attempts to use Cerebra again, this time to access the mind of the Earth’s mutants. However, Jean Grey was able to save the memories of Xavier with her own telepathic powers, splitting them up and storing them in the minds of other mutants. Once Nova’s memories make contact with Xavier, he reasserts control of his body.