Apparently there are more secrets in Secret Invasion than anyone realized.

The upcoming series stars Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and is based on the Marvel comic about an invasion of Earth by the Skrull alien race. That much has been understood ever since the show was first announced at Disney’s Investor Day in December of 2020. But at the company’s presentation to advertisers this week, Marvel head Kevin Feige revealed a very surprising tidbit about the show’s setting that completely alters its trajectory and our expectations about what might happen on the show.

Feige told the audience at Disney’s Upfronts (via Bleeding Cool) that Secret Invasion takes place “during The Blip, when half of the universe was decimated by Thanos and will explore the events that happened in that period.”

Secret Invasion
Marvel
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That’s an interesting revelation for a few reasons. For one thing, the Blip is now more than five years ago in Marvel Cinematic Universe time. (Remember: Five years passes between the star of Avengers: Endgame and the rest of the movie. And the most recent MCU shows and movies are set a few months to a year or two after that.) Setting the show in the past means that it will either be a totally self-contained story that will never be addressed again, or it will in some way leave huge cliffhangers that will then be left to resolve in future shows.

The Secret Invasion comics were about Marvel’s heroes discovering that some of their ranks had been secret sleeper Skrull agents hiding in their midst for years. (In the comics, the Skrulls aren’t a benevolent and oppressed race like that are in the MCU.) So the show could end with some characters we think are humans being revealed as Skrulls — but only to the audience. Which could add a whole lot of suspense to future series and movies if it turns out that that, say, Bruce Banner isn’t who he claims to be, but the rest of the Avengers have no idea about his deception.)

The other interesting aspect of this whole thing is that Nick Fury (and Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill, who’s also in Secret Invasion) were snapped out of existence by Thanos during the Blip as well. Or at least, they seemed to be in the post-credits scene from Avengers: Infinity War. So if this show takes place during the Blip, and Nick Fury doesn’t exist, how is Nick Fury the star of the show? That’s a big mystery.

Secret Invasion doesn’t have a confirmed release date on Disney+ yet, but it’s expected to premiere either in late 2022 or early 2023.

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