Meet Cassandra Nova: MCU villain who makes her live-action debut in Deadpool & Wolverine

Cassandra Nova

'Deadpool & Wolverine' has hit the big screens today. While Ryan Reynolds infectious energy and Hugh Jackman long-awaited return make this a joy ride, the movie also has evil powers who try to destroy the universe. In this installment of 'Deadpool', Ryan Reynold's Wade Wilson as Deadpool brings back Wolverine to save his universe. The film apart from its barrage of cameos has strong villains. The strongest among them is undoubtedly Cassandra Nova, the evil twin of Professor X (Charles Xavier) from the X-Men universe.

In the film, her entry confuses Deadpool to mistake her for Professor X and even leaves Wolverine confused for a second as she appears in a wheelchair and has a bald head.

Cassandra Nova backstory:

The supervillain first appeared in the Marvel Comics in New X-Men #114 (July 2001). She is a mummudrai, a parasitic life form born bodiless on the astral plane. According to the comics which is also referred to in the movie, Cassandra was killed in the womb by her twin brother after Charles realized her evil powers. Since she was telepathically entangled with Xaviers, it granted Cassandra some psionic powers herself including the ability to exit the womb and create a body with which she sought revenge on Xavier.

In 2009, Cassandra Nova was ranked as IGN's 50th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time. It made her the only villain from the 21st century to make the list.

As per the comics, Cassandra is known for the mass murder of 16 million mutants in Genosha, when she led an army of Sentinels to invade the mutant homeland, even killing the mighty Magneto. The Genosha genocide was also a storyline in the ongoing X-Men ‘97 animated series. However, at the end of the latest episode, the mastermind behind the same was revealed to be Mister Sinister, thus saving Cassandra's MCU debut for Deadpool & Wolverine.

21st century's scariest villain meets Deadpool:

Emma Corin plays the role of Cassandra Nova in 'Deadpool & Wolverine' marking the characters' big-screen debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It seems like Wade was not completely aware of the power that Nova holds and his Merc mouth gets Johnny Storm/Human Torch (played by Chris Evans) killed by Nova. Nova has always lived in the Void, part of the multiverse. She reveals that she was stationed in the Void by TVA (Time Variance Authority). However, during a fight with Wolverine and Deadpool she learns that the TVA has been attempting to eliminate her. This forces her to enter Deadpool's universe and uses the machine created by TVA to eliminate every universe till only The Void remains. Deadpool & Wolverine's last task is to stop Nova from destroying the universe at the cost of their own lives.