Secret Invasion and Nick Fury’s coming of age: MCU explores new adventures in phase five

There is an amusing irony about Nick Fury. He has been integral to Marvel Cinematic Universe for a decade and a half but little is known of him. Fury sauntered into MCU with his post-credit cameo in the 2008 blockbuster Iron Man as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who is primarily in charge of assembling the right superheroes every time Earth needs to be saved from intergalactic threats. The highly important job profile has ensured his presence in MCU over a dozen times, across various films and series. Yet, the S.H.I.E.L.D. top gun has been a largely mysterious entity so far, except that he digs wry humour, looks cool wearing eye patch, loves leather trenchcoats and flits in and out of MCU screenplays with a swagger only Samuel L. Jackson can add to a role.

When Secret Invasion drops on June 21 and MCU’s Phase Five enters the domain of small screen series, Jackson as Fury, for the first time in any Marvel screen adventure, gets to essay a central role. Barring hardcore buffs, the world of Secret Invasion is not as familiar a comicbook adventure as the exploits of more prolific Marvel stars such as Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Spider-Man, Hulk or Black Panther. Since Fury drives most of all that happens in Secret Invasion, understanding the character becomes pertinent to soaking in the action that the new show is set to unfold.

Fury-ous update

Secret Invasion presents Nick Fury in an uncertain world after the deaths of his superhero colleagues in Avengers: Endgame. It is therefore time to update the character from what he essentially was, which lets series creator Kyle Bradstreet and director Ali Selim explore his past as well as future.

Traditionally, Nick Fury has been a bad boy of sorts, even an antagonist in the odd comicbook story. While introducing him in MCU, the makers tweaked certain details — for instance, Fury was originally a White man in the comics and a World War II veteran who managed to slow his aging process. “There are things that even I really didn’t know about Nick Fury that I just found out,” Jackson told EW in an interview, adding the series gives “an opportunity to explore something other than the bada**ery of who Nick Fury is”.

That the character comes of age in MCU with Secret Invasion is obvious from Jackson’s defining him as the “connective tissue” of the series. For the first time, we get to see Nick Fury aging, and beyond the signature swagger. He is more human than comicbook this time, with “psychological issues” and “physical issues” he doesn’t seem to be aware of.

Here come the Skrulls

The scope of a storyline is basic: Nick Fury races against time to avert an alien takeover of the world. The aliens in question are the Skrulls, a species of shapeshifting extraterrestrials from the planet Skrullos in the Andromeda galaxy. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Skrulls first appeared in a January 1962 edition of Fantastic Four comics.

On the MCU screen, the species has so far had off-and-on appearances since the 2019 film, Captain Marvel. In the MCU Phase Three film that was set in 1995, Brie Larson as Carol Danvers or Captain Marvel helps a group of Skrulls led by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) defend against an attack by another species called the Kree. Talos was also seen with his wife Soren in the 2019 film, Spider-Man: Far From Home, which concluded Phase Three. In the film, Talos and Soren assume the shapes of Nick Fury and Maria Hill on Earth even as the real Fury is away in space.

In the 2021 Phase Four series WandaVision, a Skrull takes the shape of an FBI agent to mislead the superhero Monica Rambeau in an episode. Skrulls also had a presence in the first seasons of Loki and What If…?, both series having premiered in 2021 as part of MCU Phase Four.

Heroes of secret invasion

The focus of the show is on Fury’s new challenge, having lost his trustworthy super fighters in the war against Thanos in Endgame. He must create a new team of heroes to save Earth from a group of rebel Skrulls. Led by Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), these rebel Skrulls plan to conquer Earth by assuming shapes of people in power across the planet. The idea let Marvel boss Kevin Feige and his creative team launch Phase Five in a whole new direction beyond familiar superhero tracks and with a darker edge, even as Fury seeks the help of Talos, who is now settled on Earth, as well as his old S.H.I.E.L.D. associate Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and ex-CIA agent Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman).

Ben Mendelsohn returns to MCU as Talos in Secret Invasion, while a highlight casting is of Emilia Clarke as G’iah, the daughter of Talos who bears a grudge against Fury because she believes he did not fulfil his past promise to secure a new home for the Skrulls. Other important cast members in the series include Olivia Colman as MI6 bigshot Sonya Falsworth who is a friend of Fury, and Don Cheadle, back in MCU as James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes.

Phase five in a nutshell

Phase Five of MCU actually started on the big screen earlier this year with Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3. Secret Invasion, with six episodes that will have a staggered release over six weeks, is the first series of MCU’s new phase. Six other series have been earmarked for Phase Five, after Secret Invasion drops.

In October this year Tom Hiddleston returns as the titular star in the second season of Loki, and a month later Alaqua Cox stars as Maya Lopez, who can perfectly imitate a person’s movements, in the new series, Echo. This is scheduled to be followed by season two of the animated series, What If…?

MCU’s Phase Five roster for next year has three new shows lined up. Ironheart presents Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams / Ironheart, a genius inventor who creates a suit to match Tony Stark’s. Next in line is Agatha: Coven Of Chaos, a spin-off from WandaVision that casts Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness, a witch who lives in the guise of Wanda Maximoff and Vision’s meddlesome neighbour. The third new show finalised for a Phase Five debut is Daredevil: Born Again, which sees Charlie Cox reprise his role as the blind lawyer Matt Murdock who leads a double life as the masked superhero, Daredevil.

If all that seems mind-boggling for now, it’s best to wait and keep watching. Going by MCU track record, the more complex the universe gets the headier the adventures become.

Vinayak Chakravorty is a critic, columnist and journalist who loves to write on popular culture.

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