It's one last fight for Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in Secret Invasion trailer
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Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off with the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in February. And now we have the official full trailer for the first TV series in Phase Five, Secret Invasion, which focuses on Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury. The trailer dropped during ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball.
(Spoilers for 2019's Captain Marvel below.)
The six-episode series is a "crossover event" that Marvel President Kevin Feige expects to tie into future films in the MCU, most notably The Marvels, slated for a November 2023 release. It's based on the 2008 comic book storyline, although the series will have fewer characters, focusing primarily on Fury and the Skrull leader Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), a Fury ally after the events of Captain Marvel. But it will explore similar themes of political paranoia, per Feige, and the series creators also drew inspiration from the TV series Homeland and The Americans.
In addition to Jackson and Mendelsohn, Secret Invasion will bring back Cobie Smulders as SHIELD agent Maria Hill; Don Cheadle as James "Rhodey" Rhodes, aka War Machine, a US Air Force officer and friend of the late, lamented Tony Stark; and Martin Freeman as former CIA agent Everett K. Ross. New additions to the cast include Emilia Clarke as Talos' now-grown daughter, G'iah, who harbors some resentment against Fury for failing to find a new home for the Skrulls; Kingsley Ben-Adir as Gravik, who heads a band of rebel Skrulls intent on infiltrating Earth; Olivia Colman as MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth, a presumed ally who nonetheless is described as being somewhat antagonistic toward Fury; and Dermot Mulroney as US President Ritson.
Secret Invasion is basically a sequel to Captain Marvel, which was set in the 1990s. That film ended with Fury promising to help the few Skrulls who had survived an attempted genocide by the rival Kree Empire find a new home where they would be safe. The new series is set in the present day, and apparently, relations have soured. Per the official premise: "Nick Fury learns of a clandestine invasion of Earth by a faction of shape-shifting Skrulls. Fury joins his allies, including Everett Ross, Maria Hill, and the Skrull Talos, who has made a life for himself on Earth. Together they race against time to thwart an imminent Skrull invasion and save humanity."
The first teaser for Secret Invasion debuted last September at D23 Expo, showcasing a Fury who still had both eyes and giving off a spy-thriller vibe. Showrunner Jonathan Schwartz told Vanity Fair that the plot would not center on trying to figure out who might secretly be a Skrull but on the tension between loyalty and identity and the impact this has on trust.
Those elements are front and center in the full-length trailer, which opens with Fury's return to Earth after a long absence. "Since you've been gone, things have gotten much worse," Talos (in human disguise) tells him, and a quick scene of a suicide bombing drives the point home. That is, in fact, why Fury returned, but Colman's Agent Falsworth, for one, isn't sure he's ready for the coming fight--especially since he insists this is a war he must fight alone, without the Avengers. After all, Skrulls can shape-shift to look like anyone and have quietly been impersonating powerful people all over the world. Plus, many people thought Fury was dead, somehow making him "the most wanted man on the planet," per Rhodey. He still has some allies, but will those bonds withstand the stress test?
Secret Invasion premieres on Disney+ on June 21, 2023.
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