The One Thing Secret Invasion's Director Was Instructed Not To Do With The Show
It's no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has typically only used the vast library of Marvel Comics as loose inspiration for the movies. Bucky Barnes in the "Captain America" movies took a very different route than the boy wonder sidekick to Steve Rogers in the source material, instead becoming a peer and a friend who fought alongside the super-soldier through the thick of World War II and beyond. "Iron Man 3" (in)famously flipped the rather racist caricature of the Mandarin on its head, turning one of the more misguided elements from the comics into a pretty incisive commentary on the "War on Terror." And the Mad Titan Thanos gathered all those Infinity Stones (not Gems!) out of some radical notion of "balance," as opposed to wanting to win the affections of the physical manifestation of Death (which, if you ask me, would've been much more interesting).
In short, although it largely remains faithful to the spirit and tone of what's come before, the MCU has very much become its own thing altogether.
"Secret Invasion" seems to have taken that approach to even more of an extreme, however. Upon the premiere of the espionage show (you can check out /Film's review by Josh Spiegel here), fans likely couldn't help but notice the relatively smaller scope of the story. Compared to the epic crossover event that this storyline resembles in the comics, the first episode confines itself to only a few different locations across Russia and with nary an actual superhero in sight. Time will tell if this approach pays off, but you may be surprised to learn that straying so far from the source material was actually a very conscious choice — to the extent that the show's director was instructed not to even read the comics.
'It's a story unto itself'
Once upon a time, superhero comics were treated with so little regard among Hollywood circles that the set of 2000's "X-Men" was considered a comics-free zone. Things have come a long way since then, to say the absolute least, but "Secret Invasion" director Ali Selim's latest comments might just bring back some awkward flashbacks to a much different time. In a new interview with Screen Rant, Selim explained how he first joined the show under strict orders not to allow himself to become influenced by how the comics handled the story:
"When I took on this job as director, I didn't write the script. So a lot of those decisions were made by Kyle Bradstreet and the other team of writers that we had. The first thing I was told is don't read the comics. It had nothing to do with what we're trying to do here. This story was really born out of the electricity created between Sam Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn or Nick Fury and Talos in 'Captain Marvel.' And they said, 'Oh, we got to do something with that.' So they found a story that would serve that relationship and would expand the MCU and other characters who are not in the comic books. I think it's a story unto itself."
There's definitely some merit to this thought process as a director, freeing Selim to hone in on the specific story aspects from the MCU that ought to be emphasized. But as writers, Bradstreet and the writing team likely did more than their fair share of homework and deep-dives into the comics. Does the premiere pull off this tricky balance? You can watch the first episode of "Secret Invasion" on Disney+ (and then read my recap of the premiere afterwards).