Key information
– Debuts on Disney Plus on June 21
– Plot based on Marvel's Secret Invasion comic series
– First crossover event in MCU history
– Official trailer released in early April
– Samuel L Jackson returns as Nick Fury
– Ben Mendelsohn, Cobie Smulders, Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, and Kingsley Ben-Adir among supporting cast
– Story will impact other Phase 5 projects
It's official: Secret Invasion is coming to Disney Plus this year. The first Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV series of 2023 will debut on the platform in June, so the lengthy wait for its arrival is almost over.
Before it makes its debut on Disney Plus, what do we know about the Marvel Phase 5 TV show? In this guide, you'll find every piece of important information on Secret Invasion, including its official launch date, trailers, cast news, plot details, and so much more.
Before we begin, a word of caution: full spoilers follow for numerous Marvel movies and TV shows. Potential spoilers concerning Secret Invasion are also discussed in our cast and plot sections.
Secret Invasion release date
Trailer tonight. #SecretInvasion pic.twitter.com/f3EadyDMQmApril 2, 2023
Secret Invasion will launch exclusively on Disney Plus on Wednesday, June 21. The announcement was made in the tweet above, which was posted on April 2 alongside an official teaser poster for the series. That reveal came four days after Marvel inadvertently leaked the show's release date, meaning we knew an announcement was imminent.
The spy thriller show is expected to debut with a one-episode premiere, and it'll run for six weeks if it does. Of course, Marvel could decide to drop two episodes on launch day, which would result in Secret Invasion releasing weekly for five weeks. Once we know more, we'll update this section.
Secret Invasion trailer
The latest teaser for Secret Invasion was posted online on April 3 – and, in our view, it could be the reassuring win Marvel needs right now after a troublesome 12-month period for the Disney subsidiary.
Like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Marvel's first TV show of 2023 will be an espionage thriller, and the footage that makes up the two-minute long trailer showcases why. We see Nick Fury looking extremely concerned at various points, plenty of Skrull on Skrull action, and a twisty-turny plot that'll have Fury and company (and viewers!) questioning everything they knew about the MCU.
Missed the series' first teaser, which arrived in September 2022? Watch it below:
Secret Invasion cast
Here's who you can expect to see in Secret Invasion:
- Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
- Ben Mendolsohn as Talos
- Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
- Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross
- Don Cheadle as James ‘Rhodey' Rhodes/War Machine
- Olivia Colman as Sonya Falsworth
- Kingsley Ben-Adir as Gravik
- Emilia Clarke as G'iah
- Dermot Mulroney as President Ritson
- Killian Scott as TBA
- Christopher McDonald as TBA
- Carmen Ejogo as TBA
- Irina Kara as TBA
Jackson reprises his role as ex-SHIELD director Nick Fury, a character he's played since 2008's Iron Man. His last MCU appearance was in 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home, where Fury was enjoying a vacation onboard a Skrull spaceship.
Fury is joined by Ben Mendolsohn’s Talos and Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill. Talos was also seen in Far From Home, disguising himself as Fury to help Spider-Man stop Mysterio. Meanwhile, Hill hasn’t been seen since Avengers: Endgame. Well, technically she hasn’t – Smulders reprised her role as the ex-SHIELD deputy director in Far From Home, too. But, like Talos who was masquerading as Fury, she was being impersonated by Soren, Talos’ wife.
Don Cheadle and Martin Freeman are also back as James ‘Rhodey' Rhodes and Everett K. Ross, the pair last seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, respectively. Rhodey will be the US President's right hand man at the start of the story.
NEW: The first images from Marvel’s #SecretInvasion have dropped, via @VanityFair. Sam Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Emilia Clarke, Martin Freeman, Ben Mendelsohn, Kingsley Ben-Adir. Hits D+ June 21. pic.twitter.com/lXQY2yLv2gMarch 31, 2023
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Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) has finally been confirmed to be playing G'iah (per Vanity Fair (opens in new tab)), a Skrull who, in the comics, impersonated Pepper Potts for a while. However, her story has been altered for Secret Invasion, with G'iah – who also goes by her human pseudonym Nell – being Talos' daughter. Yep, the very same one we saw in 2019's Captain Marvel, no less. G'iah will reportedly start out as an adversary of Fury and company, but eventually joins them to tackle Gravik's Skrulls.
Speaking of Gravik, Kingsley Ben-Adir is portraying the Skrull commander, who is a new character created for the series. MCU insider CanWeGetSomeToast (opens in new tab) suggests Gravik has risen through the empire’s ranks to be a prominent leader in the Skrull hierarchy and will be the primary antagonist. According to The Cosmic Circus (opens in new tab), Gravik's rogue sect have set up camp in Russia, and he's also what's known as a super Skrull, a group of Skrulls who possess superhuman abilities in the comics. Industry leaker MyTimeToShineHello (opens in new tab) confirmed this on Twitter and says other Skrulls seen in the show will have similar powers.
Award-winning actress Olivia Colman is playing MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth, a secondary antagonist motivated to protect the UK's own interests amid the Skrull invasion. The Falsworth name is one comic fans will immediately recognize, with members of this family taking on the superhero pseudonym Union Jack. It's unclear if Colman's Falsworth will do so in this TV show.
Possible spoilers follow for the identities of Secret Invasion's other characters.
Dermot Mulroney (Hanna, The Purge) is said to be portraying President Ritson, according to an image snapped by Instagram user the_insta_phils (opens in new tab) (thanks to ComicBook.com (opens in new tab) for the catch). The first trailer also appears to show Mulroney's Ritson in the convoy that's hit by an explosion. We'd be surprised if he survives that attack, too, with Harrison Ford's Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt' Ross already confirmed to be the next US President in Captain America: New World Order.
Christopher McDonald (Hacks, Happy Gilmore) is apparently playing a Fox News-style anchor in the mould of Tucker Carlson (per Secret Invasion News (opens in new tab)). Killian Scott (Ripper Street, Love/Hate) will supposedly portray a Skrull called Fiz (via The Direct (opens in new tab)), while Carmen Ejogo (Fantastic Beasts) has been cast in an undisclosed role.
Elsewhere, Russian actor Irina Kara (Psycho) was also spotted on set (via Reddit (opens in new tab)) but nobody knows what her role entails. DanielRPK (via CBM Scene (opens in new tab)) has claimed Charlayne Woodward (Unbreakable) will portray Priscilla, who is Fury's wife and a S.W.O.R.D agent, too.
One character who surprisingly might be involved is Daisy Johnson/Quake, who was portrayed by Chloe Bennet in ABC’s Agents of SHIELD – a TV series without ties to the MCU. Given Quake’s prominent role in the Secret Invasion comic book series, some fans have wondered if she'll appear.
Bennet previously denied her involvement on Instagram, but Marvel leakers CineStealth (opens in new tab) and Tom Smith (opens in new tab) suggest Bennet will feature. DanielRPK (opens in new tab) claims she'll get a new origin story, even though Marvel will include parts of her Agents of SHIELD character arc. Another leaker – The Watcher (opens in new tab) – has suggested Quake's MCU origins will be kept intentionally vague, which gives Marvel some wriggle room about Agents of SHIELD‘s MCU canonicity.
Since those rumors (and denials) were posted online, Bennet appears to have confirmed she's back as Quake. Taking to Instagram (opens in new tab) in late November, Bennet posed alongside some daisies (*hint hint*), with Marvel fans assuming she'll make her MCU debut very soon. We'll have to wait for the miniseries to be released, though, to know for sure.
Secret Invasion plot
Here’s Secret Invasion‘s brief story synopsis: “Secret Invasion is a newly announced series heading to Disney Plus. The crossover comic event series showcases a faction of shape-shifting Skrulls who have been infiltrating earth for years.”
The series, which was inspired by similar genre fare including John Le Carré novels and TV shows like Homeland, will be spy/espionage superhero action-adventure in tone and it'll be the MCU's first crossover event, so it'll likely tie into Marvel Phase 4 and other Phase 5 projects. Secret Invasion won’t be as narratively expansive as the comics it's based on, however. In January 2021, Marvel President Kevin Feige told ComicBook.com (opens in new tab): “There were more characters in the comic series than there were in Endgame so, no [Secret Invasion won’t be bigger in scope].”
Per Vanity Fair (opens in new tab), spymaster Nick Fury will become embroiled in a vast conspiracy that sees double agent-like Skrulls installed in positions of power across the globe. At the end of Captain Marvel, which was set in the '90s, Fury and the titular superhero were supposed to have helped Talos' peaceful group of Skrulls find a new planet to call home. As Samuel L Jackson tells Vanity Fair, though “that's not going so well”. Clearly, some of those Skrulls have grown tired of waiting and, after being radicalized by breakaway leaders Gravik, start taking matters into their own hands – including invading Earth and mingling among its human population.
Among Gravik's number is G'iah, who's become emotionally hardened and worn out by broken promises from Fury and company. Speaking to Vanity Fair, Clarke said: “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. 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.”
Given the series’ major players, Secret Invasion is a continuation of the story from Captain Marvel and Spider-Man: Far From Home. These movies involved the Skrulls to varying degrees, so it’ll come as no surprise if they act as jumping-off points for the series.
Speaking to Collider (opens in new tab) in January 2021, Feige said the series' “political paranoia” was something Marvel had wanted to explore for a long time, adding: “We wanted to do a series because it would allow us to do something different than we’ve seen before.” In a separate Digital Spy (opens in new tab) interview, Martin Freeman also teased: “It's pretty dark figuratively and literally. It's a bit murky, quite labyrinthine in terms of storytelling, and the amount of people crossing over with each other.”
So, why doesn't Fury just call in a few favors from his superpowered friends? As Jackson teases via Vanity Fair: “You’ll find that out. There’s a very good reason he’s holding back.” (NB: we think we know why, but you'll have to read our potential spoiler section to find out more).
Potential spoilers follow for Secret Invasion's plot.
One interesting plot point might concern The Blip – i.e. the moment where Thanos snapped half of the universe out of existence in Avengers: Infinity War. CineStealth (opens in new tab) claims it doesn't take place during this period, but the Skrull invasion occurs in the five years between Infinity War and Endgame. If true, its first episode may cover the Skrull invasion before the show's main narrative begins.
Given the Skrulls’ ability to shapeshift, we could see other MCU characters make cameo appearances. The comic series revealed there were Skrulls who had been masquerading as some of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for years. And it sounds like this story thread could be adapted for the show, with MyTimetoShineHello (opens in new tab) saying there'll be “some superheroes” who turn up in the series. Is this what Jackson is alluding to when he teases why Fury doesn't ask for the Avengers' help? It could well be.
Elsewhere, The Cosmic Circus (opens in new tab) suggests the Department of Damage Control (DoDC), who showed up in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Ms Marvel, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, will also figure.
We'll learn more about Fury's life away from the superhero world, too. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly (opens in new tab), Jackson said: “There are things that even I really didn't know about Nick Fury that I just found out. The minds behind what happened during The Blip are fantastic. That's part of what we're uncovering when we do this series now.”
Finally, chatting to The Hollywood Reporter (opens in new tab), Jackson elaborated on how the series will explore Fury's priorities and world outside of his job. “I can have a whole life as Nick Fury that’s not Nick Fury at work,” he said. “You know, we get to go home with me and see what happens with me at home or when I’m alone or when I’m not so strong.” Could Charlayne Woodward's Priscilla tie into this? We'll have to wait and see.
Secret Invasion: how will it impact the MCU?
Secret Invasion should follow on from Captain Marvel and Far From Home, and potentially pick up some plot threads from WandaVision, which saw Monica Rambeau/Photon (Teyonah Parris) approached by a Skrull in the series finale. The unnamed Skrull told Rambeau that a friend of her mother wanted to meet Monica, and many fans have predicted this “friend” is Nick Fury.
This plot point wasn’t resolved before WandaVision ended, so it’s possible that Rambeau could cameo in Secret Invasion. It's that, or this will be explored in The Marvels, which Rambeau will have a major role in alongside Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel.
Meanwhile, during Marvel’s presentation at Disney’s 2020 Investor Day (via Mashable (opens in new tab)), Feige revealed Secret Invasion would tie directly into upcoming MCU movies. The Marvels will be one – Fury is set to appear in that flick – and, as mentioned in our cast section, Captain America 4 should be another. Lastly, Don Cheadle confirmed to Total Film magazine (via SlashFilm (opens in new tab)) that Secret Invasion “kicks off what happens” in Armor Wars, Rhodey's first solo MCU adventure. So that's three forthcoming films that'll be directly affected by what happens in this show.
For more MCU content, read up on how to watch the Marvel movies in order, check out our Best Marvel movies ranked guide, or read up on what you need to know about Loki season 2.
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