Nebula (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

• 1. Introduction

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  Nebula enters every training fight knowing she will lose. Thanos arranged it that way. He sent her against Gamora repeatedly. Each time Nebula fell, he removed another piece of her body and replaced it with a machine part. Karen Gillan portrayed Nebula across six Marvel Cinematic Universe films. She spent four and a half hours each day in the makeup chair to carry that history visibly on her skin. Guardians of the Galaxy introduced her in 2014 as a secondary villain. But the questions worth following are not really about villainy. They are about what kind of person survives that kind of upbringing, and what she does with herself afterward.

• 2. A Sister's War

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  On Ego's living planet, Nebula finally beat Gamora in hand-to-hand combat. What came out of her afterward was not relief. She told Gamora she had never wanted a contest between them. She had wanted a sister who chose love over winning, and Gamora had never offered that. The two women then walked into a cavern filled with skeletal remains, evidence of their father's other crimes.

  James Gunn built Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 around this fractured bond. Gillan described their shared backstory as a story about "what happened to these two girls growing up" and "how it has ruined their relationship." She added that the sequel would expose "the emotional crack" in Nebula's character, revealing how much pain Thanos had truly inflicted on her.

  After Yondu's funeral, Gamora offered Nebula a place with the Guardians. Nebula declined. She had resolved to kill Thanos and left alone with that aim in mind.

• 3. Becoming the Machine

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  Roger Stern and John Buscema created the comic book Nebula. She first appeared in The Avengers #257 in July 1985. The character Karen Gillan would eventually play diverged from that foundation in ways that would later reshape the source material itself.

  In July 2013, at San Diego Comic-Con, James Gunn revealed that Gillan had been cast as Nebula. Gillan had previously auditioned for the role of Sharon Carter in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Gunn called her screen test his favorite among all the film's candidates. He described watching her develop what he called "this bald cyber-jerk" out of "a pretty simple character."

  Gillan researched the ancient Spartans, shaved her head, and spent two months in physical training before filming began. She described Nebula as a character with sadistic tendencies that she believed had "a very valid reason" behind them. Jealousy, she said, was the most interesting emotional force to explore in the role. On the first day of shooting, Gunn offered an unexpected direction. He asked Gillan to channel Marilyn Monroe, specifically her breathy vocal delivery. Gunn described Monroe's delivery as "a similar voice to Clint Eastwood." In early drafts of the script, Nebula was planned to be killed off by Gamora. The directors decided instead to keep her alive and bring her back for the sequel.

  By Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the daily makeup session had been cut to two and a half hours. Gillan also only needed to shave the underneath half of her head for the second film. Gillan had read The Infinity Gauntlet comic when she was first cast. She guessed early on that Nebula would eventually hold a central place in whatever the MCU was building toward.

• 4. Hunting the Father

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  Nebula's first direct attempt on Thanos's life ended in capture. She was held and tortured aboard the Sanctuary II. In 2018, Thanos used her as leverage to extract from Gamora the location of the Soul Stone. Once he left with Gamora, Nebula escaped and piloted a ship to Titan. There she met Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Stephen Strange, Peter Quill, Drax, and Mantis, and joined their assault on Thanos. The assault failed. Nebula and Stark were the only ones left on Titan after the Blip. Carol Danvers arrived to bring them home.

  At the Avengers Compound, Nebula reunited with Rocket. The two joined Thor, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, James Rhodes, and Carol Danvers in traveling to the Garden to confront Thanos. Thanos was there, but he had already destroyed the Infinity Stones. Thor killed him. Nebula and Rocket then remained with the Avengers and worked with Danvers on missions in space.

  In 2023, the remaining Avengers devised a plan to travel through the Quantum Realm into past timelines to recover the Infinity Stones. Nebula went with Clint Barton and James Rhodes to the planet Morag in an alternate 2014. Her cybernetic systems began to malfunction because an alternate version of herself was present in the same timeline. Alternate Thanos analyzed her memories and learned about his future defeat and the Avengers' efforts to prevent it. He then sent alternate Nebula to take her place in the main timeline.

  Prime Nebula, with alternate Gamora's help, escaped and returned to find the Avengers Compound in ruins. She tracked down alternate Nebula and Clint Barton in the Compound's tunnels. She tried to convince her alternate self to abandon Thanos. Alternate Nebula refused and aimed her weapon at alternate Gamora. Prime Nebula shot her. The battle ended when Tony Stark used the Infinity Stones to eliminate alternate Thanos and his army from existence. A week later, Nebula attended Stark's funeral at his cabin. She then officially joined the restored Guardians, collecting Thor from Norway on the way.

• 5. Leader of Knowhere

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  The Guardians spent much of 2024 going on adventures alongside Thor, including helping him lose weight. For Thor: Love and Thunder, director Taika Waititi brought out what Gillan called the "bonkers side" of Nebula through her "pure aggression." In 2025, they traveled to Indigarr for a planned vacation, but the planet was under attack by a race called the Booskans. Thor ultimately defeated the army for them.

  Earlier in 2025, the team had bought Knowhere from the Collector and welcomed a new member named Cosmo. For Christmas that year, Nebula went to Earth and removed Bucky Barnes's arm to give to Rocket as a gift. She also took part in the celebration that Mantis organized for Quill.

  In 2026, Adam Warlock attacked the Guardians' base and left Rocket gravely injured. Rocket required an override code to disable a killswitch built into his body; without it, he could not heal. Nebula reached out to alternate Gamora, by then working as a Ravager. Together they organized a mission to infiltrate the Orgosphere, headquarters of Rocket's creator, the High Evolutionary. When the code could not be found there, the team traveled on to Counter-Earth to confront the High Evolutionary directly.

  Aboard the High Evolutionary's vessel, the team found children locked in cages. Nebula, Drax, and Mantis were sealed in a chamber with creatures called Abilisks. Mantis calmed the animals, and the group used them to escape. Nebula later used her own cybernetic systems to pilot the High Evolutionary's wrecked vessel, steering it to Knowhere to offload the captive children there. Peter Quill disbanded the Guardians in their current form and named Rocket as their new leader. Nebula chose to stay on Knowhere with Drax, taking charge of the city and helping look after the children they had freed.

  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, released in 2023, was Karen Gillan's final appearance as the character. The Empire Awards had nominated her for Best Female Newcomer in 2015, an early recognition that the character was already leaving a mark.

• 6. Legacy and Reception

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  Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent said Nebula had "all the makings of being a vintage Marvel character" but felt she was "slightly short-changed." Miles Surrey of The Ringer described her as "starkly different from virtually everybody in the MCU." He also called her internal conflict "one of the most fascinating and compelling threads the MCU has spun over its 20-plus installments." Richard Newby of The Hollywood Reporter called her story "one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's best and most empowering myths."

  Karen Gillan's Nebula departs from the comic book version in several significant ways. In the comics, the character was depicted almost exclusively as a villain with an organic humanoid appearance and curled hair. She also claimed to be Thanos's granddaughter, a claim he denied. The MCU made her Thanos's adoptive daughter and Gamora's adoptive sister, with the bald cyborg look that defined her identity in the franchise. A 2020 comics miniseries later revised her appearance to more closely resemble that MCU version. For once, the influence had run from the screen back to the page.

  Gillan received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 2019 for her performance in Avengers: Endgame. In the animated series What If, one alternate version of Nebula rose to become Nova Prime of the Nova Corps. Her team included Korg, Groot, and Howard the Duck, and she led them in defending Xandar against Ronan.