Marvel’s Secret Invasion is bringing paranoia in the MCU to a new level. The upcoming series finds Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) joining the Skrulls to find the alien race a new planet before an extremist group can wipe them out and infiltrate the people Fury has dedicated his life to protecting. In an in-depth interview with Vanity Fair, Jackson spoke about Secret Invasion in ways we haven’t heard before, revealed the identity of Emilia Clarke’s mysterious character, and more.
Before we get started, the Skrulls are an alien race who can perfectly simulate any human being at will. This ability makes them the ultimate weapon in infiltration and a threat to humankind. They could be anyone at any time. Your friends. Your neighbors. Your partners. They’re everywhere. Fury knows Earth is facing a threat unlike anything ever, and there’s almost no one he can trust to stop the secret invasion.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Jackson said, “We don’t know who’s a friend, who’s the enemy.” He continues, “There’s a political aspect that kind of fits into where we are right now. Who’s okay, who’s not? What happens when people get afraid and don’t understand other people? You can’t tell who’s innocent and who’s guilty in this particular instance.”
In Secret Invasion, a group of Skrull extremists led by Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) radicalizes soldiers for a hostile takeover. Fed up with Talos’ (Ben Mendelsohn) leadership, Gravik defects from the group of Skrulls we met in 2019’s Captain Marvel. The situation mirrors actual world events where groups defect, sewing chaos and disorder in an otherwise peaceful alliance.
“I think any time that you get cultures that have significant tensions between groups of people, then you can find a corollary,” says Mendelsohn. “The Cold War stuff is the big one that jumps out, but there is plenty of strife between groups of people that this addresses.”
Secret Invasion introduces Emilia Clarke as G’iah (pronounced “Guy-ah”), who disapproves of Talos and his plan. While Clarke is new to the MCU, her character is not. G’iah is from Captain Marvel! Remember when Talos reunited with his family in the third act? That’s right, G’iah is Talos’ daughter! “Remember when Ben was there with his wife and daughter?” Jackson told VF, “She’s the little Skrull girl grown up. She’s his daughter.”
“It’s hardened her for sure. There’s a kind of punk feeling that you get from this girl,” Clarke says. “She’s a refugee kid who’s had Talos for a dad, you know what I mean? Maybe the fact that we didn’t know he had a kid up until this point tells you everything you need to know about their relationship.”
G’iah is no fan of Nick Fury. His plan to help the Skrulls is taking too long, and Earth is right there for the taking. Why not override the humans and settle down? “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,” Clarke says. “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.”
Fury is not alone when it comes to dealing with the Skrulls. Martin Freeman’s Everett K. Ross is a part of the action too. Another ally is Don Cheadle‘s James “Rhodey” Rhodes, otherwise known as War Machine. He’s a military weapons liaison and works closely with the President. “This is a different kind of Rhodey—a political animal and not, you know, a guy who has a special suit,” Jackson says. “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 also stars as a calculating MI6 agent. “It’s somebody that you’ve never seen her play before,” Jackson says about Coman’s new Marvel character. “She’s coldblooded and just relishes being that person.” Colman’s character is shady, and we wonder if we can trust her. Cobie Smulders returns as Fury’s longtime S.H.I.E.L.D. partner Maria Hill. She plays a pivotal role in Secret Invasion, and humanity’s fate could rest on her shoulders. “I think Maria Hill has really run out of patience,” Smulders says. “She’s always had this really close relationship with Nick Fury, [but] he’s been gone for so long, and she’s just been running around putting out fires.”
In addition to spilling the beans about Secret Invasion, Vanity Fair printed a gallery of first-look images for the upcoming series. Feel free to check them out and let us know if you’re excited about Marvel’s six-episode espionage epic in the comments. Marvel’s Secret Invasion comes to Disney+ on June 21.
For more details about the series, and comments from Jackson, be sure to check out VF’s full report.