Secret Invasion Trailer Breakdown: Nick Fury Is Ready For A Skrull Showdown
Though it was only published 15 years go (which isn't all that long ago by Marvel Comics standards), "Secret Invasion" is one of the most beloved and impactful events in Marvel's storied history. Now, it's coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and, somewhat amazingly, it's not as a movie. Rather, it's going to be a big event series on Disney+ this summer, giving us something to do between "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" and "The Marvels." A new trailer has dropped, setting up Samuel L. Jackson's return as Nick Fury, letting him take the spotlight arguably for the first time ever.
For those unfamiliar, the story centers on the shapeshifting aliens known as the Skrulls, who we met in "Captain Marvel," planning to invade Earth. They have been replacing people on the planet in anticipation of a takeover, making it difficult for Fury — or anyone else for that matter — to know who to trust. Those interested in reading it beforehand can find our reading order guide right here. Given the importance of this story, we're going to take a much closer look at the trailer, breaking it down frame-by-frame to see what we can learn. Let's dig in, shall we?
Nick Fury returns
The teaser opens with a shot of a very suspicious Nick Fury walking through an unknown location in the woods. We get some voiceover from Ben Mendelsohn's Talos reminding us that he's been gone in space for quite some time, which we initially learned in the post-credits scene attached to "Spider-Man: Far From Home." Yet, he's been called back to Earth. Why, exactly? Well, it's all got to do with the Skrulls — even though nobody actually says as much in the trailer. There's an air of caution in everyone's voice, and in the way everyone is acting. It's espionage and mystery.
A light in the woods
To serve as an inciting incident of sorts for the trailer, we have this mysterious light appearing in the woods, seemingly the very same woods that Fury was walking through moments before. Only now it's nighttime and, as anyone who has ever seen a science fiction movie knows, aliens love to come to Earth at nighttime whilst implementing mysterious lights.
A figure is seen standing at the entryway of a ship, though their image is obscured just enough so that we can't tell who it is. Is this Fury returning to Earth? One of our evil Skrulls, perhaps? Again, mysterious.
Reunited, but it doesn't feel that good
We cut to a shot of Talos speaking with Fury, and it's pretty clear they haven't seen one another in a while. Let us not forget that "Captain Marvel" takes place in the '90s, so these guys are old friends. Unfortunately, they are not meeting under the best of circumstances.
Talos says things have gotten "much worse." But what is he talking about, exactly? Where is this isolated safe house they are meeting at? One might expect they know the Skrulls have been coming to Earth but, again, very little is being said explicitly. They're really leaning into the mystery of it all.
Skrulls are terrorists now
This is where we start to understand the "worse" that Talos was getting at, as we see peaceful people going about their day, seemingly in Russia based on the flags, right before it literally gets blown to hell.
We cut to a shot of our first look at Kingsley Ben-Adir as the Skrull Gravik, who appears to be our main villain of the piece. He detonates a bomb in an act of straight-up terrorism. So yeah, things are bad.
The old Nick Fury
Not of critical importance, but the next shot shows us Nick Fury looking a lot more like the Nick Fury of old, with his eye patch on, shaved head, and that ever-serious look on his face. This looks like a Fury that is ready for action, which certainly explains him delivering the line, "Why do you think I came back?" at this moment.
A Skrull inspired logo
Marvel is really leaning into the whole Skrull thing here, as the Marvel Studios logo that comes up about a quarter of the way through the trailer is decked out in green, not unlike the skin of the aliens in question.
Welcome to London
Not a ton to say here, but it very much looks like this show is going to be taking us to London. So this may well be a globetrotting adventure, not unlike "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," which was easily the best spy adventure in the MCU to date. But why is Fury going to London? What's waiting for him there? That may be the bigger question.
Hello, Olivia Colman!
And would you look at that! We get our first look at Oscar-winner Olivia Colman joining the MCU here as an ally of Fury's by the name of Sonya Falsworth. She's a special agent of sorts who, by the looks of it, has an important job, given her fancy office.
But she's also pretty skeptical right off the bat, telling Fury he's in no shape for the fight ahead. Admittedly, at this stage, he is looking a little worse for the wear.
A whole lot of Graviks
Here, we see Talos getting very upset at Gravik, one of his fellow Skrulls. As soon as Talos grabs him though, we see everyone else in the room mirror Gravik. This is the first indication we get that there are a lot of the shapeshifters about, and learning who to trust is going to be difficult. The look on Talos' face says it all, really.
Nick Fury's grave
In a rather intriguing moment, we see Fury and Falsworth visiting his grave ... which, of course, is not actually his grave. It's here where Fury explains that "this is personal," which is why he's doing his thing despite the shape he's in.
It's also worth looking at the wording on his tombstone. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." That could be a bit of foreshadowing, but we'll get to that in a minute.
Fury gets down to business
We have a couple of quick shots here that signal this is, indeed, personal for Fury, and he's getting down to business. He grabs himself a gun from a pretty cool stash he had set up, letting us know he's ready to rock and kick some alien ass.
We also see him once again partnering up with Talos who, admittedly, looks a little nervous here. He knows what his people are capable of though, and if anyone should be nervous, it's probably him.
Friends from the shadows
Falsworth then delivers some pretty cool spy movie voiceover here with the line, "Very few of us know about the wars fought in the shadows that have raged on this planet." This is almost certainly my love for the movie talking, but I am getting some "Skyfall" vibes from that particular line. Aside from that, we then catch up with some old friends who do, indeed, deal in wars in the shadows.
We get some quick shots of Martin Freeman's Everett Ross and Cobie Smulders' Maria Hill. These are both hardened vets of the spy game who have been part of the MCU for a long time. It makes every bit of sense to have them along for this particular ride.
An alien discovery
This might be one of the most intriguing shots in the whole trailer, as we see a room filled with glowing bodies on tables. Are these Skrulls? Who is harboring all of these bizarre, seemingly incapacitated bodies in a clearly secretive location? More importantly, it is Emilia Clarke's G'iah who discovers them.
Indeed, the former "Game of Thrones" star is joining the MCU as well, and she's actually playing the daughter of Talos, who we see briefly in "Captain Marvel" as a child. But she's all grown up now, and she's made a pretty compelling discovery.
Nick fury therapy
Here, we get a bit more of Fury speaking with Falsworth in her office. This almost feels more like a therapy session, with Falsworth asking him, "Do you feel responsible?" Responsible for what, exactly?
That remains a bit unclear, as does almost everything else going on in this trailer, but it's clear that Fury may have had a hand in the mess that needs cleaning up based on his reaction to that question.
Where are The Avengers?
Another really intriguing shot is a newspaper while some voiceover questions, "Where are The Avengers?" And it's a fair question, as this seems like precisely the kind of thing that they would be called in for.
It's also, again, getting at the idea that this is going to be a globetrotting affair, largely in Europe it seems, as this is a French newspaper — one that is referencing the Battle of New York from 2012's "The Avengers." Are we going to be going back in time? And who was that stranger in the rain outside that window under the umbrella? So many questions, precious few answers.
A mysterious device
Adding in more mysterious elements to this alien plot, we got a shot of someone from behind (possibly Gravik?) approaching what appears to be some new, secretive tech — a large device with a completely unexplained purpose. Is this Skrull tech? Or is this something that a shady government agency has put together?
Nick Fury has to fight
We get yet another example of Nick Fury explaining to someone off camera that this is a fight he must take on personally. Yet, this time, he makes it clear that this is something that he must do alone, which is an interesting wrinkle.
Is he not going to team up with Talos? Why does he feel he must do this alone? Is he worried about putting others at risk? Sorry to keep asking questions that currently don't have answers, but that's a lot of what this trailer seems to be doing.
Convoy goes boom
Now we're getting to the action! Not to make light of people dying, but would a spy thriller be any good without big explosions? A helicopter swoops in, loaded down with artillery, launching a missile at a convoy. Who is this convoy protecting? We don't know! More questions. It looks expensive and cinematic, particularly by TV standards.
What's most important is that we see G'iah in the aftermath of the attack huddled over a body looking really, really upset. Who bites the dust? And how pissed off is that going to make her?
The most wanted man
Perhaps Nick Fury needs to be doing this all by himself because he's on the wrong side of the law this time around. Case in point, we see a straight-up small army of agents holding him at gunpoint, while a familiar voice let's us know that he is the most wanted man on the planet.
And look at that! That voice is none other than Don Cheadle's Colonel Rhodes, aka Rhodey, aka War Machine. Again, it makes every bit of sense for him to be here, but he seems pretty nervous as well, and appears to be warning Fury of what he's getting himself into.
What's the plan for Fury?
We once again catch up with G'iah, this time interacting directly with Fury. She comes with a warning, letting the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. know that he doesn't know "what they have planned for you." Who is the "they" in this situation? Is she talking about the Skrulls? Someone else? That would appear to be a very big question.
Specimen sample
Another very intriguing shot here as we see a foggy briefcase carrying a "specimen sample" that is not actually shown to us. Also of note, this is coming from Damage Control, an organization we've seen in the MCU before, like in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and "Ms. Marvel." This is the same group tasked with handling the aftermath of superhero-centric disasters. So what specimen are they carrying?
It does seem like Falsworth might have something to do with it, as we quickly cut to a shot of her brandishing some sheers, getting ready to "talk" to someone who is tied to a chair. Clearly, she's not the type to f*** around.
The great Nick Fury
Here, we get some voiceover from an unidentified individual referring to our main man as "The great Nick Fury." It is said with a healthy dose of sarcasm, so one can only assume this is someone he's crossed in the past.
Acion, action, action!
We've arried at the point in the trailer where it's a lot of quick cuts, and lots of action. This feels like a standard issue sequence for any blockbuster trailer, with lots of intense imagery coming at you lightning fast. We start with a chase sequence on some rooftops. Who is chasing who? They leave us pretty much no time to tell.
We then get some well-disguised henchmen breaking into an undisclosed building, and they don't appear to be doing by-the-numbers work here. Are these bad guys? Are good guys operating in the grey? We've also got a pretty cool shot of G'iah back-to-back with another unidentified person getting ready to rock, guns in hand. And oh yeah, a big helicopter crash. Is this connected to that convoy sequence from earlier, perhaps?
Talos doesn't look so good
Towards the end of the action sequence, we see Talos lying on the ground with some wounds, mostly in human form. Though his green, Skrull skin is starting to show, and he doesn't look too good. Is he going to make it out of this alive?
Also of note, a few frames earlier, we get a shot of a Skrull in the flesh, which isn't too present here as they are mostly trying to stay hidden. It makes sense, given the premise. So what draws this one out?
The final showdown
Near the climax, we get a little glimpse at what might be the final showdown between Nicky Fury and Gravik. What's interesting is that they are duking it out in that mysterious device we saw much earlier in the trailer. So it's pretty clear that, whatever this device is and whatever it does, it's rather important.
Super Skrulls?
As we bring the trailer in for a landing, we get this wild shot of Gravik using a power we've yet to see a Skrull use before, with some Groot-like vines shooting from his arm. Also of note, there are some human soldiers behind him (or are they human?), signaling that some of the armed men we've seen in the trailer may be working for the Skrulls.
Another shot from a few seconds earlier in the trailer also shows this power at play. This could be our first look at a Super Skrull, which is a Skrull who has an advanced power within the species, granting them abilities beyond what might be typical for their species.
One last fight
Lastly, we conclude with a shot of Fury leaving the cemetery from earlier in the trailer. Most importantly though, he says the words "one last fight." That is a huge deal, as much of the imagery in the footage seems to be hinting at a conclusive arc for Samuel L. Jackson, who has been part of the MCU from the very beginning nearly 15 years ago. Is he going to go out in a blaze of glory? Are they setting up the death of Nick Fury? Maybe that would be a little too on-the-nose, but we have some reason to believe this could be Fury's big goodbye.
"Secret Invasion" premieres on Disney+ on June 21, 2023.