the "Secret Invasion" storyline, which remains one of the most beloved comic book events of all time for Marvel Comics fans. The event saw some of Marvel's biggest superheroes replaced by a race of alien shapeshifters known as Skrulls. The live-action version was first teased at the very end of Far From Home, when Nick Fury and Maria Hill were revealed to be Skrulls Talos and Soren, with the real Nick Fury operating a Skrull spaceship far, far away.
The after-credits scene was notable as the very final scene of the MCU's Phase 3. Bringing the Infinity Saga to a close, the scene established an entirely new backdrop for Phase 4: Secret Invasion. Now, it seems supervillain Kang the Conqueror will instead act as the thread binding the MCU films together. The news came as a bit of a surprise to fans who expected the Secret Invasion storyline to weave together the MCU's many parts, but Marvel Studios isn't forgetting about Far From Home's shocking tease.
An event like Secret Invasion has the potential to alter the very nature of the MCU. Even a second viewing of Far From Home feels drastically different once one recognizes that Fury and Hill are actually Skrulls the entire time. It is therefore rather surprising to see Marvel Studios limit the storyline to a Disney+ series rather than a feature film, although their growing investment in television storytelling presents more room to explore the complex story. What makes the series, which will star Samuel L. Jackson as Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, especially exciting, however, is how it might subvert audience expectations if the Far From Home after-credits scene is any indication.
Whereas the Skrulls presented an unequivocal evil in the comic-book version of Marvel's S.W.O.R.D., a new organization that, unlike S.H.I.E.L.D., has shifted its focus from earthly to extraterrestrial threats. With the MCU becoming increasingly cosmic in scale, Fury's new organization could play a key role moving forward.
The Secret Invasion series may therefore look markedly different from previous iterations of the story. The question that remains is how much Secret Invasion will overlap with the MCU's films, if at all. A proper telling of the story would require several high-profile heroes to appear, and the fact that it was first introduced in Far From Home likely suggests broader ambitions than a TV series. But again, Marvel seems to be changing the very nature of how it tells its stories, with the Disney+ series becoming more and more essential to the framework of the MCU. Secret Invasion has the potential to carry the MCU into new and exciting territory, or it could simply be a fun one-shot series. Only time will tell which it will be.
