Marvel Studios’ six-episode “Secret Invasion” limited series offers an espionage thriller-style tone as it follows a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls having been on Earth for years.
Samuel L. Jackson reprises his role as Nick Fury in the series, who returns from his extended sojourn into outer space and uncovers a conspiracy to install shapeshifting Skrull double agents into positions of power around the world.
The film serves as something of a spin-off follow-up to events in 2019’s “Captain Marvel,” including the return of Ben Mendelsohn as Skrull leader Talos, along with dealing with some of the lingering issues that happened during ‘The Blip’.
In a new interview with Empire (via Screen Rant), Jackson confirms the series will deal with a key plot at the end of “Captain Marvel”. At that film’s end (set in the 1990s), Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel promised to find a new home planet for the Skrulls.
Thirty years later, in the present-day MCU, that promise has yet to be fulfilled, and Jackson says with the series: “We’re seeing what the consequences of [what] that could be.” He also says the series helps set up “The Marvels” film opening later this year: “This series has to happen so that The Marvels can happen. All these things are connected in an interesting sort of way.”
This all begs the question as to whether Larson’s character will make a cameo appearance. To date, there have been no indications of any such cameo. In addition, the producers have gone out of their way to point out that tonally this is very different from not just that film but the rest of the MCU, with a focus on darker adult themes and a focus on practical effects where possible.
Jackson has also spoken about one frustration he’s had with his role – namely, the character’s absences during key events in the MCU, such as the splitting of hero factions during “Captain America: Civil War”:
“Sometimes it’s the absence of Nick Fury that’s hard for me… I was trying to figure out where I was during ‘Civil War,’ when the kids were fighting, and I wasn’t there to say, ‘Everybody go to your room.’ Where was I during ‘Endgame?’ It’s harder for me not to be there, than be there.”
Larson’s Carol Danvers will return later this year in “The Marvels,” which hits cinemas in November. “Secret Invasion” premieres on the Disney+ service on June 21st.
