New Images, Details Shared for Marvel's "Secret Invasion"

Everything (and everyone) is not quite what it seems. Some very interesting new details and images have been shared for Marvel’s upcoming Disney+ original series Secret Invasion in a first look from Vanity Fair.

Vanity Fair

The biggest takeaway from this new look at the series is the character who will be played by Emilia Clarke.
The Game of Thrones star, whom we’ve known has been a part of the cast for about a year already, will be playing G’iah, the daughter of Talos and a character we met back in Captain Marvel.

Vanity Fair

Clarke explained the motives of her character in the upcoming series:
- “These people promised a lot of stuff a long time ago, and not a lot has happened. So understandably, a certain amount of resentment has been built. There’s a lot of emotions that live within her, and there’s a lot of confrontational aspects to her character that have come from circumstance. You understand why she has the feelings that she does.”

Vanity Fair

Which leads to the next big takeaway: the series will focus on a faction of Skrull extremists who are tired of waiting for Nick Fury and the people of Earth to find them a new home.
Samuel L. Jackson, who of course reprised his role as Nick Fury in the series, explained how we got to this point:
- “He told the Skrulls they were trying to find them a place to live. He promised them they were going to find them a planet or somewhere they could be. And that’s not going so well.”
The group of Skrulls will be led by Gravik, who will be played by Kingsley Ben-Adir.

Vanity Fair

Executive producer Jonathan Schwartz explained that the creators of the series were going for a real-world for of feel in which the audience does not know who to trust.
- “We were really inspired by shows like Homeland and The Americans. What you find is there are people that you trust or you think you can trust—or you can only trust to a certain point.”
We also learned that Fury will cross paths with Martin Freeman’s Everett Ross, the CIA agent we’ve seen in Captain America: Civil War and the Black Panther films.

Vanity Fair

He will also run into James Rhodes, formerly known as War Machine and the best friend of Tony Stark.
Jackson shared some thoughts on the version of Rhodes we’ll see in the series:
- “This is a different kind of Rhodey—a political animal and not, you know, a guy who has a special suit. He’s the president’s right-hand man in this. So he’s the guy that makes a lot of decisions—some good, some bad.”
Olivia Colman is set to play an MI6 agent who is “ostensibly motivated to protect England’s national security interests during the crisis.”
Jackson also shared some details on this character:
- “It’s somebody that you’ve never seen her play before. She’s cold-blooded and just relishes being that person.”

Vanity Fair

Cobie Smulders is also set to return to reprise her role as Maria Hill in the series. Smulders shared some thoughts on the role this character has to play:
- “Listen, I would’ve loved superpowers at some point, but it’s also intriguing playing a human in this world, because you’ve made the choice to really put your life in jeopardy. This is a Marvel story where the humans can shine. Even though there are aliens, and there’s going to be extraordinary fight sequences, this is about people on the ground talking to each other, and interviewing people, and really doing hands-on work to get the information needed.”

Vanity Fair

Both Jackson and Smulders explained that Fury has been off-world and ignoring Hill’s messages. However, the series begins with Fury finally responding to a message that the Skrulls are not quite as friendly as they once were.
Another takeaway fans have had from the trailer and images we’ve seen in the past is the lack of the iconic Nick Fury eyepatch. Jackson explained this was a character choice and actually points to a more vulnerable Fury.
- “He just doesn’t wear the patch. The patch is part of who the strong Nick Fury was. It’s part of his vulnerability now. You can look at it and see he’s not this perfectly indestructible person. He doesn’t feel like that guy.”
That’s not all Fury is dealing with in this series though. This is also a character who has made some tough decisions in the past and now he has to deal with the repercussions, according to Schwartz:
- “Sins from his past start to haunt him once again. We often see Nick Fury doing the right thing. We don’t always see him doing it in a perfectly morally correct way. All of those things have ramifications. Without getting too specific, the things that Nick Fury’s had to do to protect the Earth have costs.”
Jackson also made a couple of interesting points; one about the character’s past and another about his future.
In regards to his past, Fury has always been someone who could attain seemingly any information he needed. Thanks to Jackson, we now know why:
- “Nick had a whole Skrull spy network because they could shape-shift and go places that people couldn’t go. They kept their word. They worked for him, but he hasn’t done what he said he was going to do. They want a home. They want to live. They want to live like they are. They want to live in their skin. They don’t want to live in ours.”

Vanity Fair

And in regards to Fury’s future, Jackson left an interesting tease as to why we don’t see any of our favorite Marvel heroes in the trailer for this new series:
- “What he’s not doing is calling in his super friends. So that’s part of the whole dilemma. I mean, people want them and he’s not bringing them.
When ask why that is the case, Jackson had a simple response:
- “You’ll find that out. There’s a very good reason he’s holding back.”

More on Secret Invasion:

In Marvel Comics, “Secret Invasion” is a story in which Earth has been infiltrated by the shape-shifting race of aliens known as the Skrulls. Earth’s mightiest heroes have to assemble to take out this new threat, but they don’t know who they can trust as any one of them can be a Skrull.
It does, however, seem as though this new series will head in a more contained and intimate direction, with none of the actual Avengers having a role to play.
Want an idea of what could be in store in this new series? Mack has a list of five Marvel characters who could be a Skrull.
Disney+ recently revealed that the series would be released on June 21st, but has since removed the page for the series that provided that information.