Marvel's Secret Invasion on Disney Plus: everything we know | TechRadar

Marvel's Secret Invasion on Disney Plus: everything we know

Secret Invasion's release date might not be so secret after all. That's right, the forthcoming Marvel TV series has seemingly had its official launch date leaked – but you'll have to read on to find out when it could arrive.

That's not all you'll learn in this Marvel Phase 5 hub. Below, we've compiled everything worth knowing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV show, including its cast news, story details, how it'll impact other MCU films and Disney Plus series, and more. We're nothing if not thorough.

Full spoilers follow for previously released Marvel movies and shows. Additionally, potential spoilers follow for Secret Invasion's characters and plot. Don't read those sections if you're avoiding them pre-release.

Secret Invasion release date: what we know

Nick Fury gets his own MCU project with Secret Invasion. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Secret Invasion doesn’t have an official release date. Marvel has confirmed (opens in new tab) it'll arrive in Q1 2023, although credible MCU insider CanWeGetSomeToast (opens in new tab) (CWGST) suggests it'll premiere in May, meaning it could arrive in Q2 instead.

Another Marvel leaker – CineStealth (opens in new tab) – claimed it would release in two parts either side of The Marvels, which arrives in July. CWGST's leak lends credibility to this rumor, but we'd be surprised if does.

However, the MCU Status Twitter fan account (opens in new tab) speculated one of the best Disney Plus shows (potentially, we should say) could release on March 8. That's a Wednesday, which is when Marvel TV shows usually launch. For now, then, you're best waiting for Marvel to officially announce Secret Invasion's release date.

Secret Invasion trailer

Secret Invasion's first trailer arrived in September 2022. It looks a tense espionage thriller in the mould of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, too, with its various characters – Nick Fury in particular – unsure of who he can trust.

Secret Invasion will be action-packed as well. We see multiple instances of explosions, characters carrying firearms, and fraught conversations about who might be a skrull masquerading as a human. As Ben Mendohlson's Talos tells Fury at one point: "Be very careful".

An exclusive scene featuring Fury and Don Cheadle's James Rhodes – an extended sequence of a brief clip in the trailer – also debuted at D23 Expo 2022. Lastly, three seconds of new footage debuted in Disney Plus' 2023 "Feels like Home (opens in new tab)" trailer, but there's nothing we can glean from what's shown. Hopefully, a new trailer will be released (alongside a launch date!) soon.

Secret Invasion cast

Don Cheadle's James Rhodes will cameo in Secret Invasion. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Secret Invasion's cast is confirmed at this point, but there's still no official word on who some actors are playing:

• 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
• Dermot Mulroney as President Ritson
• Olivia Colman as Sonya Falsworth
• Kingsley Ben-Adir as Gravik
• Emilia Clarke as TBA
• Killian Scott as TBA
• Christopher McDonald as TBA
• Carmen Ejogo as TBA
• Irina Kara as TBA

Jackson will reprise his role as ex-SHIELD director Nick Fury – a character he's played since 2008's Iron Man. He was last seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home, where Fury was enjoying a vacation onboard a skrull spaceship. 

In November 2021, Marvel released an image of Fury without his iconic eye patch and sporting a gray beard. This is part of his new undercover look – initially, at least – as he tries to get to the bottom of the skrull invasion.

Nick Fury has got his good eye on you. (Image credit: Disney Plus/Marvel Studios)

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. Speaking to TVLine (opens in new tab), Smulders says the show allowed her to "bring the most depth" to Hill's character, so it sounds like we'll learn more about her past and work-life balance.

Don Cheadle and Martin Freeman are back as James Rhodes and Everett K. Ross respectively, and we have a good idea of who'll be playing the MCU's President of the United States. 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 hit by an explosion.

In an official press release, Marvel confirmed award-winning actress Olivia Colman is playing special agent Sonya Falsworth. The Falsworth name is one Marvel comics fans will immediately recognize, with members of this family taking on the superhero pseudonym Union Jack. It's unclear if Colman's Falsworth will perform a similar job here.

Kingsley Ben-Adir's skrull commander has also been identified as Gravik, a new skrull character created for the series. 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.

Possible spoilers follow for the identities of Secret Invasion's other characters.

Sonya Falsworth is one of multiple new characters in Secret Invasion. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Other cast members’ roles are undisclosed, but there are plenty of rumors about who they’re playing.

Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) is reportedly playing a spy with powers (per Charles Murphy (opens in new tab)). Many fans believe she'll portray Abigail Brand, the Commander of SWORD – a counter-terrorism organization that specifically deals with extra-terrestrial threats in the comics. 

However, prominent MCU leaker MyTimetoShineHello (opens in new tab) has claimed Clarke is playing a skrull called Veranke, who is queen of the Skrull empire... or is she? Per DanielRPK (opens in new tab) and MCU insider Lizzie Hill (opens in new tab), Clarke is actually playing a skrull called G'iah (aka Talos' daughter, according to CanWeGetSomeToast (opens in new tab)), who impersonated Pepper Potts in various Marvel comics. In Secret Invasion, G'iah will reportedly start out as an adversary of Fury and company, but swap sides when she realizes what her race is really doing on earth.

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, Your Honor) has been cast in an undisclosed role. 

Elsewhere, Russian actor Irina Kara (Psycho) was also spotted on set (thanks to Reddit (opens in new tab) for the tip) but nobody knows what her role entails. DanielRPK (via CBM Scene (opens in new tab)) has claimed Charlayne Woodward (Unbreakable) will portray someone called Priscilla, who is Fury's wife and a S.W.O.R.D agent, too.

Finally, 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 that has no ties to the MCU. Given Johnson’s prominent role in the Secret Invasion comic series, some fans have wondered if Bennet’s Johnson may appear.

Bennet previously denied her involvement on Instagram (per the Daily Bennet (opens in new tab) Twitter fan account). However, CineStealth (opens in new tab) and Tom Smith (opens in new tab) have claimed Bennet will feature as Johnson, with DanielRPK (opens in new tab) suggesting she'll get a new origin story, even though Marvel plans to include parts of her Agents of SHIELD character arc.

Another leaker called The Watcher (opens in new tab) has suggested Quake's origin story will be kept intentionally vague, so Marvel has some wriggle room about Agents of SHIELD's MCU canonicity. Agents of SHIELD creator Maurissa Tancharoen has refuted this scoop (opens in new tab), while another leaker called One Above All (opens in new tab) says we shouldn't expect other Agents of SHIELD cast members to make cameos.

Since all of those rumors (and denials) were posted online, Bennet appears to have confirmed she is reprising her role as Quake. Taking to Instagram (opens in new tab) in late November, Bennet posed alongside some daisies (*hint hint*), with many Marvel fans taking this to mean she'll make her MCU debut very soon.

Secret Invasion plot

Talos is one of the good skrulls who helps Nick Fury in Secret Invasion. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Here’s a brief synopsis taken from the Disney Plus Originals website (opens in new tab): "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 show's official Disney Plus page (opens in new tab) confirms it'll be a spy/espionage superhero action-adventure show, plus we know it'll be the MCU's first crossover event. So it's likely to tie into Marvel Phase 4 and other Phase 5 projects.

Additionally, Secret Invasion won’t be as large as the comics that inspired it. In January 2021, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told ComicBook.com (opens in new tab) it's smaller in scope than the comics, adding: "There were more characters in the comic series than there were in Endgame so, no [it won’t be bigger in scope]."

Given the series’ major players, we’re expecting Secret Invasion to be a continuation of the story from Captain Marvel – released in March 2019 – and Spider-Man: Far From Home, the final Marvel Phase 3 flick that arrived in July 2019. Both movies involved the skrulls to varying degrees, so it’ll be unsurprising if these films 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."

Potential spoilers follow for Secret Invasion's plot.

The skrulls have secretly been living on earth for a number of years. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

One interesting plot point may 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 that's true, its first episode may set this up as a primer to the main narrative.

Given the skrulls’ ability to shapeshift, we could see other MCU characters make cameo appearances in Secret Invasion. The comic series revealed that some of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were, in fact, skrulls who had been masquerading as superheroes for years. It sounds like this story thread could be carried over into the show. According to prominent Marvel leaker MyTimeToShineHello, there will be "some superheroes (opens in new tab)" who turn up in the series.

Elsewhere, The John Campea Show guest Robert Burnett (opens in new tab) has claimed Rhodey will play a key role and that Secret Invasion could be the best MCU TV show so far. Additionally, The Cosmic Circus (opens in new tab) has suggested the Department of Damage Control (DoDC), who showed up in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Ms Marvel, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, will be part of Secret Invasion, which could set up the plot of the Rhodey-starring Armor Wars movie.

Meanwhile, we could learn more about Fury's life away from the superhero world. 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, in a roundtable discussion presented by The Hollywood Reporter (opens in new tab), Jackson elaborated on how the series will explore Fury's priorities and world outside of the Avengers. "Well, 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?

Monica Rambeau may team up with Nick Fury in The Marvels. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

As mentioned, Secret Invasion should continue some storylines from Captain Marvel and Far From Home. It may also pick up events from WandaVision, which saw Monica Rambeau/Photon (Teyonah Parris) approached by a skrull in its finale. The unnamed skrull told Rambeau that a friend of her mother wanted to meet Monica, and many fans have predicted that this could be Nick Fury. 

This plot point wasn’t resolved by the series’ end, so it’s possible that Rambeau could cameo in Secret Invasion. We already know that Rambeau will have a major role to play in The Marvels alongside Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel, but it would be fun to see her turn up in Secret Invasion, too. 

Secret Invasion should impact other future MCU projects as well. For one, Don Cheadle confirmed to Total Film magazine (via SlashFilm (opens in new tab)) Secret Invasion "kicks off what happens" in Armor Wars, Rhodey's first solo MCU adventure. 

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 may be one, but others including Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania could also be affected. It seems we're right with those guesses, too, with Jackson implying Nick Fury will guest star in The Marvels and Quantumania.

Lastly, Jackson's Fury may be passing on the mantle as superhero wrangler-in-chief onto another Marvel character. Interviewed as part of Marvel's Falcon and the Winter Soldier: The Art of the Series book (per The Direct (opens in new tab)), MCU producer Nate Moore said: "The Countess Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is a character that has a rich publication history… and to some degree, figuring out who can fill those shoes, which in our mind is in a way taking the reins from Nick Fury, was tough."

Is Fury about the retire from the superhero game for good? Well, Valentina is set to lead the anti-hero group known as the Thunderbolts in that team's movie in July 2024, so maybe Fury won't be walking away just yet. We'll find out when Secret Invasion arrives.

For more MCU content, read up on how to watch the Marvel movies in order, or check out our Best Marvel movies ranked guide.