What’s next for Marvel Studios? Who’s recently joined the cast of your most anticipated series or film? Where can you find the teasers and trailers? Look no further, true believers. Everything you need to know about the future of the MCU has been collected for you here. Click on each logo to learn what we currently know about the upcoming MCU projects.
From the time the earliest teasers for Secret Invasion rolled out online, it was clear that at some point in the show, Nick Fury wouldn’t be Nick Fury. Since writer Kyle Bradstreet left that “ace” up his sleeve, it was pretty evident from the time “Fury” infiltrated the Skrull hideout that it wasn’t really him. In fact, even in the aftermath of last week’s episode, plenty of fans had already guessed exactly what was going to happen with The Harvest; however, most of those fever dream theories were more interesting than what was delivered in “Home.”
As far as series finales go, Marvel Studios has seemed to have a hard time “sticking the landing” as everyone likes to say. To continue that analogy, the Secret Invasion finale would be more akin to a gymnast hitting the springboard and then launching headfirst into the pommel horse. For what was hyped up as a paranoia-landed spy thriller, the series as a whole lacked any sense of suspicion or mistrust as to who was or wasn’t a Skrull and despite their efforts, nobody actually believed Russia and America were going to war. Skrull Rhodey was always going to die. G’iah was always going to have her vengeance. “Who do you trust?” Certainly not the people rubber-stamping the choices made here.
Much as it had previously done with the Kree, Marvel Studios has now painted themselves into a corner with the Skrulls. Kevin Feige once proudly claimed that Marvel Comics pointed Marvel Studios in the right direction with their projects: “The answers are always in the books,” said the head man. It now seems that in their quest to avoid doing direct page-to-screen adaptations, they’ve entirely lost their way. Much like Ronan the Accuser and Mar-Vell before him, Kl’rt, the OG Super Skrull, will either be ignored entirely or greatly reduced in significance…so that the MCU could have Gravik? For decades, Marvel Comics has found ways to keep the Kree-Skrull War alive and interesting but somehow, over the course of two projects, Marvel Studios reduced it–and all its players–into minimalist impressions. What’s left? Some “peace talks” and a brand new most powerful being in the galaxy in Emilia Clarke’s G’iah and Fury’s Skrull wife. What are they going to do now? No idea. Varra’s work is apparently “important” and G’iah’s final scene reeks of the all-too-common theme among Marvel Studios’ writers that whatever comes next for the character is the next guy’s problem.
And what of the hero of the series? After pushing the people he once took under his wing and hoped to find a home for into a war against their own extinction, Nick Fury…pisses back off into space? So he can make jokes again in The Marvels? After a half-assed explanation given not by Nick but by G’iah pretending to be Nick, old Nick is back and nobody would blame anyone for wondering how–or even if–the events of Secret Invasion will have changed him when we see him again. For four episodes, the series really only worked as a showcase for Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Don Cheadle and Olivia Colman’s talents; however, once it came time for it to change gears and try to find its relevance in the ongoing shared narrative, the wheels came off entirely. Ultimately, Secret Invasion will be remembered as a series of unfortunately misapplied and wasted concepts that show Marvel Studios just doesn’t value or understand the Cosmic corner of the comics that Feige once said held all the “answers.” It might be time for the studio to course-correct and work its way back to taking more inspiration from the comics–or it might be too late already.
Disney has been experimenting quite a bit on how they can grow the audience for their various shows. Just recently, it was announced that Ms. Marvel is heading to ABC and quite a few of their animated shows get limited releases on Disney’s various TV channels. Now, they are also trying it out with another Marvel series.
Hulu has unveiled that the first three episodes of Secret Invasion, which is going to release its season finale next week, will be available for a limited time on Disney’s sister streaming service. It’s an interesting way to promote the series and gain additional viewers ahead of the finale but it’ll continue to be available until August 17th.
The strategy isn’t bad, as it’s more about also expanding the bundle they are offering for those interested in multiple streaming services. While viewership for this series wasn’t among Marvel’s best, it doesn’t have any superheroes that tend to carry these kinds of projects. Though we generally don’t know what makes a Disney+ series successful in the eyes of Disney, as they release no data and we have to rely on third-party analysis. One of the important reasons writers and actors are fighting for better pay.
Source: Twitter
If you’ve been watching Marvel Studios’ latest Disney Plus streaming series, Secret Invasion, it may have come to your attention that Nick Fury just isn’t himself these days. As the audience has all too often been reminded by everyone in the show that knows him, Fury hasn’t been the same since the Blip. However, as the consequences of Fury’s secrets have continued to come back to haunt him–and potentially the entire human race–glimmers of the old spy have begun to shine through and, as of the end of the latest episode, it seems that yeah, Fury is thinking he’s back. But did Fury’s return come too late?!?!
Not to put too fine a point on it but the answer is no. And being able to answer that question ahead of the series’ finale is, as Samuel L. Jackson might certainly put it, a mother fucker. As wonderful as Jackson’s performance has been, including the unforgettable scenes he shared with Ben Mendelsohn and the chemistry he continues to share with the criminally underutilized Olivia Colman, Secret Invasion continues to be more about Fury’s past–which by proxy includes the collective past of the MCU–and the bind that puts him into in the present. However, because the Nick Fury and MCU are known to have a future beyond Secret Invasion, the audience already knows the score: despite taking heavy body blows, Fury’s going to Rocky Balboa Gravik’s “Skrull ass” and save the day. We know this because Fury is alive and well in The Marvels. We know this because there’s no way the Marvel Studios Parliament greenlit a project (Armor Wars) about Skrull Rhodey. While that doesn’t mean there might not be some surprises in the finale (after all who among us was not both completely surprised and thrilled to see that one character from Black Widow show up?), the finale pretty much writes itself and that makes anticipation for it a bit low and the buzz around it will likely be a bit dull.
I love playing him, and I love the fact that they’re opening him up to all these other possibilities and this whole life that he has. So hopefully I’m not done, and in this new phase of the MCU I’ll still be floating in and out of there somehow, some way.
Samuel L. Jackson on Nick Fury
That’s not to say that Secret Invasion hasn’t excised a pound of flesh or two from Fury. Over the course of the first five episodes, he’s lost his longest standing ally in Talos, his right hand in Maria Hill and had to come face-to-face with the idea that even he is fallible. But for Secret Invasion to truly matter, the events of it must change the man known as Nick Fury and set him on a new path just as the events of Captain America: The Winter Solider did for Steve Rogers. The good news is that it would seem Jackson has no interest in walking away from the role of Fury which means the next 4-5 years could pay off the investment fans of the MCU have put into Secret Invasion and, to be fair, that’s exactly what Marvel Studios One Above All, Kevin Feige, sold to fans when the first wave of Disney Plus series were first announced.
“These episodes will intersect with the movies in a very big way,” Feige told Variety in a 2019 inteview. “It’s a totally new form of storytelling that we get to play with and explore. It’s the first long-form narrative that Marvel Studios has done — they’ll be six episodes, eight episodes, 10 episodes with the actors from the films playing their characters. They’ll be changing, evolving, growing in those event series and then those changes will be reflected in their next film appearances,” Feige explained. So while fans continue to wait for each of these series to be “the next big thing”, Feige could easily quote Dennis Green and remind fans that “they are what we thought they were.” But therein may lie the problem with Nick Fury in Secret Invasion. If the finale simply reinstalls old Nick Fury into the MCU, which is what the whole series has been preparing fans for, then there’s been no change, no evolution and no growth. If the Nick Fury who appears in The Marvels hasn’t been irrevocably changed by the events of Secret Invasion, then it will be fair to judge the series as a failure.
As for the rest of the episode, it’s a bit of a microcosm of the series as a whole. Like the deaths of Maria Hill and Talos before him, Pagan’s death at the hands (?) of Gravik was weightless. It’s hard to think of a supporting character in any of the MCU series that was as impotent as Pagan; seemingly every action undertaken by the character, even his death, would have had the same impact on the series if it happened off screen or didn’t happen at all. For all the razzle dazzle of G’iah becoming a Super Skrull, she participated in a good old-fashioned shootout with the meanie Skrulls rather than Super Skrulling and the same can be said of Gravik who resorted to his hand-to-hand combat skills to kill the mutinous meanies Skrulls. Given the importance of the Kl’rt in the comics, to see the idea of Super Skrulls relegated to a few cheap VFX scenes makes the entire idea feel squandered. Even the episode’s McGuffin, The Harvest–an idea that has circulated since Thor’s blood lingered around during the Battle of New York seen in The Avengers–seems stripped of any real danger around it since Fury’s plan to give it to Gravik will certainly resolve in some way other than a bunch of Avenger-powered baddie Skrulls trotting around the Earth. As far as pentultimate episodes go, “The Harvest” came up short but with one episode left to go, there’s still time before the impact of Secret Invasion can truly be judged.
Representing the 2/3 marker of their 6-episode series, the fourth episodes of Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series have routinely served as pivot points for the shows. Episode 4 of Marvel Studios’ latest streaming series, Secret Invasion, kept that trend alive with multiple big moments that will change the course of the show as it heads into its final act; however, none of those big moments really felt impactful as they were ultimately far too predictable. At the end of the day, though, ” Beloved” gave Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury the final push he needed to bring back that Old Nick Fury we’ve heard so much about.
As was widely speculated–and indeed given away by promotional footage–Emilia Clarke‘s G’iah was not only NOT dead but also now a Super Skrull herself, powered up with Extremis at the least and who knows what else at the most. G’iah’s brief reunion with her father, Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos, didn’t really have the emotional kick the writers’ room probably intended for it to have (due in part to the lack of screen time the characters shared up to this point) but it did all too easily clue engaged fans into the fact that Talos wasn’t going to survive the episode. As a series intended to be full of twists and turns, Talos’ death was another example of a “twist” that was far too foreshadowed by a trope audiences have seen far too many times to miss. Just like Fury and his Skrull wife weren’t going to shoot one another and Rhodey was the most obvious Skrull plant well before the series ever aired, the paranoia and suspense that the audience is supposed to be feeling just isn’t there.
Outside of the less-than-impactful “twists” in Episode 4, “Beloved” also took away one of the series greatest strengths to date: the chemistry between series leads Jackson and Mendelsohn (it’s also probably one of the last times fans will be treated to the great chemistry between Don Cheadle and Jackson as well). While Jackson’s charisma and talent makes him a surefire match for any talented actor with whom he’s sharing scenes, he and Mendelsohn had something special and it’s more of a gut punch to know we won’t see that again than it is to know Talos is dead (or “dead’?). Talos’ death does, however, open the door for Fury to need a new ally in his fight against the Skrulls which may just lead him back to the absolutely wonderful Olivia Colman whose character has, to date, been greatly underused.
Whatever the case, it does seem clear that Talos’ death will be the final push needed to help Fury find his way back to the bad mother fucker that Secret Invasion has reminded us of so frequently. One of the most frequently seen clips from the promotional footage for series saw Fury putting on an eye patch and a trench coat in a cemetery and savvy fans are well aware that’s not happened yet. As Secret Invasion enters its third and final act in next week’s Episode 5, that moment is likely just around the corner and two episodes of a vengeful Fury turned loose on Gravik’s Skrulls puts the conclusion of the series in the hands of its surest bet: Jackson’s enormous talent. So while Episode 4 was a bit of a downshift, there’s plenty of hope for the series to end in high gear, letting Jackson open it up on a long straightaway.
Episode 3 of Marvel Studios Secret Invasion certainly doesn’t ascend to the heights of the previous installment but it does share the same strengths. “Betrayed” follows the same recipe for success as “Promises” by giving stars Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn plenty of room to riff off one another but fails to deliver the payload due in part to a fairly uninspired and less-than-surprising series of “twists.”
Billed as a paranoid spy-thriller, Secret Invasion hasn’t really been steeped in much paranoia and the outcomes of this episode’s spy games were all too predictable. The Skrull plot to blow up the UN plane didn’t work?! G’iah got caught!? Rhodey is a Skrull?! When compared to similar projects within the genre, the attempt to thrill and surprise the audience not only doesn’t live up to Mission: Impossible standards but also does not even to the MCU’s espionage goalpost, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The good news, however, is that the series is only at the halfway point and hopefully ups its game during the second half.
Whether the series ever lives up to the billing of a high-stakes spy thriller or not, it’s clear that Kyle Bradstreet, Ali Selim and the team of creatives behind Secret Invasion knew where their bread would be buttered and gave the supremely talented duo of Jackson and Mendelsohn room to work. When watching the two playfully barb one another, it’s impossible not to think that the two veteran talents either had some input into their dialogue or did a fair amount of ad-libbing. Either way, the result continues to be some of the MCU’s best character work. And on that note, using the series to draw out the idea that Nick Fury’s reputation as “the spy” of the MCU was built on the backs of Talos and his Skrulls is a wonderful bit of retconning that truly changes the world we thought we knew. Maybe the second half of the series will allow Gravik and his extremist Skrulls the same opportunity.
As for Gravik, he’s given some real bite by Kingsley Ben-Adir despite being written into some corners. Now that his Super Skrull plan has been revealed (as well as the fact that he’s already powered himself up), that will seemingly become Fury and Talos’ primary problem. How can two non-powered folks take down an army of Super Skrulls? They certainly can’t expect help from War Machine now that we know Rhodey is a Skrull and Fury has already made it clear he’s not calling The Avengers for help. So, perhaps his best bet is a Super Skrull or two of his own? While Marvel Studios has been known to waste a talent or two over the course of its 15-year history, it’s hard to believe they just Quicksilvered Emilia Clarke, especially when promotional footage for the series has shown her character in several key scenes that haven’t made their way into the show yet…including one in which she appears to be in Gravik’s Super Skrull maker. Of course, that could all have been subterfuge by the studio but given the myriad ways Gi’ah could still be alive let’s hope it’s not.
While it’s a bit concerning that Secret Invasion only delivered one truly strong episode in the first half of the series, it does actually feel like the best is yet to come. Through visual cues, the audience can track the “return of Nick Fury” and so far, he’s not quite there yet. Once Fury resumes being Fury–and what will it take to finally push him to that point?–the series could become something else entirely as well.
In the case of all things which have several parts and in which the totality is not, as it were, a mere heap, but the whole is something besides the parts…
Aristotle
It’s safe to say Aristotle wasn’t talking about Episode 2 of Secret Invasion when he wrote those words in his principal treatise, Metaphysics, but that doesn’t mean they don’t apply. “Promises”, the second of six episodes in Disney Plus’ latest Marvel Studios streaming series, is a coruscating collection of incredibly well-written scenes, made great by a set of colossally talented actors, that when viewed holistically appear as one of the finest episodes of television from the studio to date. Bookmarked by some damn interesting retconning that gives fans a lot to chew on when it comes to what they thought they knew about Nick Fury, “Promises” delivers a perfect follow-up episode to its more slowly-paced predecessor and provides hope that Secret Invasion could be full of surprises.
Short of the awkward scene in which we learn that Maria Hill had a mother, “Promises” provides the audience with the necessary exposition to understand precisely what Gravik’s Skrulls are up to AND why Gravik is up to it. Kingsley Ben-Adir‘s air of nonchalance as the character proves a compelling choice in relaying to the audience that–in his mind–the war he wages on Earth is already won. As seen in the episode’s opening flashback, his shared history with Fury has put a chip on his shoulder that can never be repaired. And as Gravik’s impressive vibe check of the Skrull Council shows, he will find a way to get his way. As the newly minted War Time Skrull General, Gravik will now have the (almost) full support of the Council to carry out his plan to create an army of Super Skrulls. That plan, revealed via one of Marvel Studios’ coolest Easter eggy scenes since Iron Man 2‘s “map scene”, involves using the work of human scientists to bind the DNA of a collection of powerful beings, such as Groot and Cull Obsidian, to that of Skrull warriors. As promotional footage for the series has already revealed, Gravik’s plan will be successful which makes you wonder how Fury, who won’t call in The Avengers, can save the day.
The strength of “Promises”, however, lies not in the revelation of a pretty comic book-y plot by the bad guys, but in the strength of the individual performances given by the ensemble cast. One episode after some heavy-handed writing bogged down the series debut, Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn’s Tarantino-esque train car scene should be the gold standard for how dialogue can be enjoyable and move the story along. The two stars share such chemistry that you wish they’d had a longer train ride. Next, it’s Don Cheadle‘s turn to star, including an especially powerful conversation with Fury that makes it clear–if it somehow wasn’t already–Rhodey is nobody’s sidekick but rather a force to be reckoned with in or out of the armor. And if you didn’t enjoy Olivia Colman‘s display of her massive talent while she tortured the captive Skrull…masterful. And the episode’s final scenes provide one of the MCU’s biggest jaw-droppers to date…and jaws will drop even further before it’s over. Scene after scene after scene, “Promises” delivers a series of moments that ultimately do coalesce into a damn good episode of Marvel TV that gives the series some necessary momentum.
I’m Nick Fury. Even when I’m out I’m in.
The stage is set for the series’ second act, one that will certainly see the “old Fury” find his way back to take on his “wayward son.” Gravik may think he’s already won the War for Earth but this is Fury’s war, too, and he hasn’t even started fighting yet.
There’s always been a lot of discussions surrounding what makes a show successful on Disney+. We have very little insight outside of third-party analysis like Samba sharing various viewership numbers from the first five days. Marvel Studios’ latest show, Secret Invasion, has been released and it looks like the show has outpaced Ms. Marvel’s initial release.
According to Samba TV, the show has been watched by 994K US households within its first five days. That is, as they point out, above Ms. Marvel’s 775K but below the last Diseny+ series, She-Hulk which pulled in around 1.5M. While the difference is big when compared to the sitcom that released last year, it does make sense given that there’s no major character name in the title and it’s more subtle marketing strategy.
It’s easy to point to the AI drama surrounding its opening title to be a reason it has lower viewership, but we tend to overanalyze these types of discussions in the offline world. Plus, Ms. Marvel is a showing of how not every Marvel show is going to be a massive multi-million release in its first five days; especially as this is just an estimate based on external data. It’s an easy connection point but not hard to say if it truly is a causality; similar to how we underestimate how few know about Ezra Miller’s history when it comes to The Flash’s box office.
What will be interesting is to see if the viewership numbers rise over the coming weeks, especially with how the series focuses on twists and turns throughout its six-episode season. Shows like Apple TV+ have different metrics, why The Crowded Room opening to 192K households over three days could be a success for that streamer but detrimental to others. A lot of Marvel shows saw viewership rise throughout its multiple episodes and could do the same here as word-of-mouth kicks off from what happens in the latest episodes but only time will tell.
Source: Twitter, The Direct, Twitter (Crowded Room)
![[SPOILER] May Return in ‘The Marvels’](https://assets.murphysmultiverse.com/uploads/2023/06/marvels-twist.jpg)
The following article contains spoilers for the ending of the first episode of Secret Invasion. So only continue at your own risk.
One of the biggest shocks in the pilot episode of Secret Invasion was the death of Maria Hill. Cobie Smulders was a mainstay since her first appearance in 2012’s Avengers. While she didn’t quite follow her comic counterparts’ growth into the leader of SHIELD, she still remained a constant throughout the franchise. It worked well to highlight the dangers Nick Fury is about to face.
Even with how big the show was and how many set photos have found their way online from the production, the twist was kept a secret up until the show’s release. Smulders shares her surprise and looking back at what she believes was “a dream job.”
There were a lot of people around, so I’m surprised that there wasn’t an image that got leaked. I guess that’s the respect that Marvel has earned over the last decade, which is like, ‘Don’t spoil it for people.’ And nobody did, thankfully.
Cobie Smulders
Interestingly enough, the article from The Hollywood Reporter claims that she is still set to return in the upcoming film The Marvels. What adds a bit of confusion to this twist. Of course, it opens the possibility that we’re going to see more Skrull twists in the series moving forward. Of course, it may just also be a hint that the film takes place earlier in the timeline tahn expected but we might not know until Disney+ releases.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Maria Hill is dead. Killed by the Skrull extremist leader Gravik as a message to Nick Fury, Hill spent her last moments in disbelief as the shapeshifter took the form of Fury before pulling the trigger. Ironically enough, Hill foreshadowed her own death in her final conversation with Fury, held around a chessboard, when she cautioned her one-time boss and long-time friend that his uncertainty was going to get someone hurt. That someone was her and as the camera pulled back from her as she lay dying on the streets of Moscow and the audience was left to reel at the shocking stakes of Nick Fury’s decisions, there was simply no reeling to be done. The impact Kyle Bradstreet, Ali Selim and the rest of the creatives behind Secret Invasion intended her death to have simply wasn’t there because they killed off a character that the audience simply did not know.
Though she’s been around since making her debut in 2012’s The Avengers, Maria Hill hasn’t played a major role in an MCU project since 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Now that the subterfuge of Marvel’s PR blitz–which featured a heavy dose of Cobie Smulders–has been exposed, it’s clear that the studio brought back Smulders to die. It’s also clear that they intended that death to carry some weight given the camera’s extended focus on Hill’s corpse and the timing of the death, coming in the closing moments of Episode 1, “Resurrection.” But even with a decade of MCU service time spread out over 6 films on her resume, Hill’s death felt less impactful than intended and probably less impactful than it should have. However, that’s no fault of the people who worked on Secret Invasion.
Relegated to cameos or minor appearances for the majority of her time in the MCU, Hill stands as one of the best examples of a major character from the pages of Marvel Comics whose transition to the MCU failed her. Created and deployed liberally by Brian Michael Bendis, Hill was a powerhouse who spent the 2000s right at the center of the publisher’s line-wide events such as Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign and Siege. For some of that time, Hill lead S.H.I.E.LD. following Nick Fury’s disappearance after his Secret War. In the MCU, she’s Fury’s right hand and, apparently, one of the only people he trusts. Other than that, the character has never really been developed in any meaningful way. That last time she was seen in a project, 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, she wasn’t even her. What went wrong in adapting the character from page to screen?
First and foremost, it seems that the decision to tear down S.H.I.E.L.D. may have cost the character a significant role. While Secret Invasion plays with the idea of Nick Fury having fallen off the radar as he did following Bendis’ Secret War, there’s no S.H.I.E.L.D. for Hill to take over. There’s nothing for Hill to take over. Come to think of it, what has she been doing since the Blip? Your guess is as good as mine because there’s no attempt to make it clear in Secret Invasion. In fact, all we get in Secret Invasion are some vague attempts to let us know Hill has tried to contact Fury for reasons unknown and a nice story about the things Fury used to say to her while they play their favorite strategy game. Did you know Hill and Fury played chess? Nobody did because nobody knows anything about Maria Hill.
Despite having a talented actress attached to the role of Hill in Cobie Smulders, the character was poorly realized over time and outside of her appearance in The Winter Solider, was essentially a one-dimensional character. The writers of Secret Invasion tried to redesign and reshape Hill to some extent by having her tell the audience about her shared past with Fury but given only one episode to do so, the efforts were futile. Her death will certainly be used by fuel as Fury to enter into his “one last fight.” He’ll want vengeance for his friend but, at the end of the day, that’s all the MCU’s Maria Hill ever got to be. There was no Maria Hill, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. There was only Maria Hill, friend of Fury. And it’s a shame that’s all the folks at Marvel Studios could find to do with one of Marvel Comics biggest badasses.
