With Moon Knight just around the corner, it’s time to start looking ahead at the rest of the mini-series that will be making up a large chunk of Marvel’s Phase Four. Marvel is keeping the plot and the majority of the characters of the hotly anticipated Secret Invasion series tightly under wraps (it does have “Secret” in the name after all), but it has released information about some of its key players!
We know that the series will be a follow up to the events of 2019’s Captain Marvel, and the end credits scene in Spider-Man: Far From Home in which we learn that Nick Fury has been working with and helping the Skrull refugees that have been on the run from the powerful Kree army.
Kevin Feige has also made a point to describe this version of Secret Invasion as more of a political spy thriller than the expected superhero action-adventure story fans might expect:
“I mean, we’re interested in the political paranoia aspect of Secret Invasion and really showcasing the stars with Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn, two amazing actors that you want to have in any series, and we’re very lucky to have them for that. That’s the sort of primary focus of that and, of course, it will tie into other things and the Skrulls in ways you haven’t seen before, but yes, anything could be anything. Wise words. But we wanted to do that as a series because it would allow us to do something different than we’ve done before.”
– comicbook.com
The Cast
Samuel L Jackson is Nick Fury
Jackson returns as Nick Fury, who is himself apparently returning to Earth after quite a bit of time off-planet (poor Peter Parker) with the Skrulls. Fury has been working with Talos and a faction of the surviving Skrull refugees after the end of the Skrull-Kree war. But now he’s back! And he has some catching up to do.
Ben Mendelsohn is Talos
Fury’s ally and a former Skrull general, Talos has actually been posing as Fury while Fury took care of some business (and maybe had some me time) elsewhere. It was also revealed that Talos’ wife was posing as Fury’s right-hand agent Maria Hill.
Cobie Smulders is Maria Hill
Smulders’ Maria Hill is back as well! She was off-planet with Nick Fury, but it remains to be seen if Smulders will be playing the real Maria Hill or if we will see Talos’ wife continuing to pose as her as well!
Rune Temte is Bron-Char
Our favorite giant Norwegian is back as Bron-Char, the Kree warrior that was an ally-turned-foe of Captain Marvel. It’s unclear whether or not he will be working with Fury and Talos or against them, and what part he might have to play as a soldier and fighter in this spy-focused version of the Secret Invasion story.
Killian Scott is Fiz
Killian Scott is going to be playing a Skrull named Fiz. In the comics, Fiz was a mutant Skrull with the ability to shrink or grow in size who came to earth to be trained by Professor X! Does this mean that the mutants might finally be integrating into the MCU? There are other tiny seeds being sown that seem to hint that it might finally be starting, like the possibility of the Illuminati appearing in Doctor Strange in the Multi-verse of Madness! The Illuminati were also involved in the Secret Invasion comics, and at one point were kidnapped by one of the series’ main villains, so it’s possible that might be another connection as well!
Don Cheadle is War Machine
Don Cheadle is back as James “Rhodey” Rhodes aka War Machine! Rhodes is a colonel in the United States Air Force and was also a liaison to Stark Industries where he became close friends with Tony Stark. He aided the Avengers in the Battle of Sokovia and joined them. He initially sided with Tony and the government during Captain America: Civil War, and helped them pull off the time heist that allowed them to undo Thanos’s snap.
Kingsley Ben-Adir
Ben-Adir has been confirmed as one of the series’ main villains, but his character’s name has not been announced. There are plenty of rumors and speculation however that he might be one of three antagonists. He might possibly be playing Dorrek VII, the Skrull emperor that leads the Secret Invasion of Skrull on earth.
It’s also possible that he might be Kl’rt, the first Super-Skrull. The Super-Skrull is endowed with the powers of The Fantastic Four and during the Secret Invasion he has a side mission – tracking down his daughter who is connected closely to She-Hulk! So it’s possible those two shows might have some close connections.
And finally, it’s also rumored that he could be playing Kly-bn. Kly-bn, a Skrull Eternal, eventually became one of the two main deities worshipped by the Skrull. It is his holy texts that, in the comics, prophesied the destruction of the Skrull homeworld and promised that their next home would be a planet called Earth – thus turning the secret invasion into a holy war.
Olivia Colman
Olivia Colman has also been confirmed as another as-yet-unnamed main player in the series. There are rumors that she might be playing S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Victoria Hand (who was killed off in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but Marvel never let a little thing like death stop them). There are also rumors that she might be playing Empress Veranke, the religious zealot who leads the holy war/invasion in the comics. Veranke deals with the Illuminati (who are trying to dissuade the Skrull from invading Earth.) She also at one point infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D. as Spider-Woman!
Emilia Clarke
Emilia Clarke is finally joining the MCU as part of Secret Invasion! There is a lot of speculation that Clarke will be playing Abigail Brand. Brand is half-alien and half-human mutant (on her mother’s side). Her powers include tactile pyrokinesis (meaning she can set things on fire by touching them) and multilingualism, an ability that means she can speak alien languages that are beyond a human tongue’s capability. She can speak both Kree and Skrull, which will come in handy when negotiating with the warring alien races. She also works for S.W.O.R.D., the sub-branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. that we first saw messing it up royally in WandaVision.
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Other confirmed cast members include Christopher McDonald (forever Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore to me), Noel Fisher (Mickey in Shameless), Carmen Ejogo (Coretta Scott King in Selma), and Irina Kara as a series regular.
(Images: Marvel Studios/Disney)
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