Secret Invasion: Don’t Skrull Past This!

The Skrulls are an alien race that can shapeshift, looking like nearly any human.  For the past 30 years, they have been our allies, while Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) attempts to find them a new home world.  But after the blip (when Thanos snapped his fingers and removed half of all living beings from the universe, which was reversed five years later), Fury withdrew and disappeared from Earth remaining on the Skrull space station. This caused the majority of Skrulls to become impatient that no new home has been found and Fury seems absent from the cause. So, a group of them, led by former friend Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) are attempting to take over the Earth to make it their own. Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) remains loyal to Fury but has been exiled from the Skrull council. With events ramping up on Earth, Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) calls Nick back but is resentful of his absence.  Everyone has noticed Fury has not been the same after the Blip and believes him to be too tired and not up for what is about to happen on Earth.  Is Nick Fury washed up? Will the Skrulls wipe out humankind? Watch and find out!

The first episode of this new series now streaming on Disney+ premiered on June 21, 2023.  The series, besides being an action-adventure story with espionage, intrigue and I am sure a lot of explosions, is also a story of self-discovery for Nick Fury.  He is uncertain of his place in the world, after the events of Avengers: Endgame, and this series will give the opportunity for him to explore how his past has affected his personal life and what the future holds for him.  Nick Fury has always been a “badass” and this will give the character more depth and dimension.

The cast of the series has most of the actors reprising their roles from previous MCU films and series, but some new and wonderful actors have joined the club.  Olivia Colman comes in as Sonya Falsworth an MI6 agent who has worked with Fury in the past.  Olivia has a bubbly personality that can have an edge to it, and I enjoy her performances and she is perfect for this role.  Emilia Clarke is G’iah, the daughter of Talos who we saw as a child in Captain Marvel (2019). She is conflicted, her life as a refugee has caused her to join the Skrulls wanting to take over Earth, but still loves her father. We don’t see a lot of Gravik in the first episode, but Kingsley Ben-Adir has a charisma that makes him a great choice as the leader of the rebels.  I am glad that they are giving Nick Fury a bit more depth and addressing his age and how his past has affected who he is. I am excited to see where Samuel L. Jackson takes the character.

The overall production value was good and there weren’t a lot of special effects needed, but what there was, was done well.  I liked the camera work that helped mask the transformations of the Skrulls between human identities.  Specifically, near the end scene when Fury is following Gravik.  The script is well written with the dialogue feeling natural.  The storyline flowed well and had a good rhythm and the episode moved at a good pace.  For a first episode, it did a good job of reintroducing characters, getting us caught up on what has been happening and introducing new characters.  There is one exception to this that they do not explain…What happened to Fury’s eye patch?