Marvel’s Secret Invasion series actually looks great

Sometimes people will (incorrectly) insist that Marvel comics and the movie stories based on them would be better off if they were somehow devoid of any political themes or ideas. But in A recent interview with Vanity FairAnd Secret invasion Executive producer Jonathan Schwartz likened the series to John le Carré’s classic Cold War-era spy movies and made references to more modern shows, such as FX’s The Americans and Showtime homeland, as sources of inspiration.

“We often see Nick Fury doing the right thing,” said Schwartz. “We don’t always see him do it in a completely morally right way. All of those things have ramifications. Without being more specific, the things Nick Fury had to do to protect Earth have costs.”

Set some time after that Avengers: EndgameAnd Secret invasion First introduced in 2019, it tells the story of how Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) finally comes out of hiding to deal with a long-running problem involving shape-shifting Skrull refugees. Captain Marvel. The last time we saw Skrulls in Spider-Man: Far From HomeMany of them, like Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), were still voluntarily living as humans and serving as secret agents for Fury as he worked to find a suitable new home world for them somewhere in space. According to Jackson, though, Fury’s inability to keep his word is a big part of what defines him Secret invasion in motion, and the series will focus on what happens when some aliens decide to take matters into their own hands.

“Nick had a whole Skrull spy network because they can shapeshift and go places people can’t go,” Jackson said. “They kept their word. They worked for him, but he didn’t do what he said he would do. They want a home. They want to live. They want to live the way they are. They want to live in their own skin. They don’t want to live in our country.”

Jackson said the worry of not knowing “who is friend, who is foe” is what energizes Secret invasion They described the show as taking advantage of our current political moment by asking, “What happens when people get scared and don’t understand other people?”

Obviously, Fury would have more than enough reason to be distrustful Secret invasionHis primary opponent is Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), a separatist Skrull who leads the campaign to infiltrate world governments by posing as ordinary humans. But the story is potentially more complicated when it comes to Gravik’s estranged co-worker G’iah (Emilia Clarke), who also happens to be Talos’ estranged daughter.

“There’s a kind of sinister vibe you get from this girl,” Clark said. “She’s a refugee child who has dad’s talos, you know what I mean? Maybe the fact that we didn’t know he had a child until this point tells you everything you need to know about their relationship.”

In the past, Marvel’s reluctance to really take the time to delve into the ramifications of things like the Skrulls’ displacement in Captain Marvel He had a way of making films’ attempts at political commentary seem kind of flat, maybe that’s the point. but Secret invasion He seems very interested in picking up these threads and really capturing them with some intent, and that might be what it takes to get the series to land some heft when it premieres on June 21.