This article contains major spoilers for Secret Invasion.
Boy. Secret Invasion. Oof.
So, yeah, it turns out that Rhodey, a.k.a. War Machine, was a Skrull the whole time—not just in the Disney+ limited series, but likely dating all the way back to Captain America: Civil War. All those emotional moments in Avengers: Endgame, where Rhodey gets real with Nebula and witnesses the death of Tony Stark? It wasn’t Rhodey. None of it meant anything. Yet another Marvel character reset. Sigh.
But wait! Rhodey isn’t the only character who wakes up in a pod in New Skrullos at the end of Secret Invasion.
While G’iah is letting everyone out of their pods, we see Agent Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) in the pod next to Rhodey’s. After he wakes up, he asks Rhodey how long he’s been there. We already knew that a Skrull agent was impersonating Ross—after all, that agent died in the very first scene of episode 1—but the series finale confirmed that Ross had actually been abducted.
The Skrulls have two tiers of impersonation: simply donning someone’s likeness, like we saw when Gravik briefly impersonated Fury in order to shoot Maria Hill; and using Skrull technology to steal their memories so that a Skrull agent can fully replace them. Now we have confirmation that Ross was in New Skrullos the whole time.
How long has Everett Ross been a Skrull?
It’s hard to say when exactly Ross was abducted and replaced. The last time we saw him was in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, when Okoye sprang him from FBI custody after he aided Wakanda against the orders of the CIA. Freeman told Collider that chronologically, Secret Invasion overlaps with Wakanda Forever. Does that mean he was a Skrull in Wakanda Forever?
Sure. Why not? Maybe he’s always been a Skrull. Maybe everyone in the MCU is a Skrull. Maybe Lucky the Pizza Dog and Alligator Loki are both Skrulls. I dunno, man, I’m so mad at this show.
Seriously, though, it’s not at all clear when Skrull Ross entered the scene. Maybe we’ll find out at some point in the future.
Martin Freeman doesn’t like it, either
In his conversation with Collider, Freeman said that he simply refuses to believe that Ross has always been a Skrull.
I don’t wanna play Ross as Skrull. I don’t wanna believe he’s been a Skrull this whole time, so I don’t. That’s not what I’ve played. I’ve believed, all the time, in Ross’s integrity, actually. I really enjoy playing Ross, as a Skrull or otherwise. I’ve enjoyed playing him as an organic human man, so I don’t wanna lose him to Skrulldom. So, no, Ross, for me, is not a Skrull.
I’m going to go ahead and join Freeman over in the “Ross was not always a Skrull” corner. It’s nice there. It’s got integrity.
(featured image: Disney+)
