From the moment that the latest Marvel Studios show, Secret Invasion, has played out its six episode run, fans have been wondering how the major reveals were going to affect the MCU, as a whole. We’ve already seen actor Dermot Mulroney’s reaction to learning that Harrison Ford has been tapped to play the U.S. president in Thunderbolts. And Secret Invasion director Ali Selim wants fans to use their Disney+ subscription to go back and revisit all of Don Cheadle’s performances post-Captain America Civil War to determine if Rhodey has been a Skrull that entire time. But when it came to plotting out events that Secret Invasion was able to show (or not show), Selim told CinemaBlend that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige gave the show only one directive. And it had to do with Nick Fury.
Ali Selim has said that Secret Invasion is not a superhero story, that it is a Nick Fury story, with Samuel L. Jackson getting to explore a haunted side of the S.H.I.E.L.D. leader. But there was one obstacle hanging over the show that was out of Selim’s hands. Fury was seen in the trailer for The Marvels, safe and sound aboard the space base S.W.O.R.D., or Sentient Worlds Observation and Response Department. It looked like this:
In a marginal way, Fury’s presence in The Marvel’s trailer stole some pressure from the finale, because we knew that Nick would survive this encounter with the Skrulls. Unless he was a Skrull. Or The Marvels is a prequel. Seriously, the MCU has a problem with its continuity. So when we got a chance to speak with Ali Selim about Secret Invasion and its finale, we wanted to know if he had to focus on that aspect for Fury to keep the story of the MCU moving along. And as it turns out… he had to. As Selim told us:
I think there’s a lot of freedom to tell the story that we need to tell. And the only requirement was that at the end (Fury) went up. (laughs) And so we’re like, ‘OK, that’s easy. He goes up.’
And at the end of Secret Invasion, that’s what happens to Nick Fury. He goes up. He doesn’t go up alone, though. If you want to know who accompanies him, watch Secret Invasion. It has flaws, but also develops major plots for the MCU as a whole.
Are you OK with Marvel telling Secret Invasion, “Tell the story you want, but… this has to be your ending?” It a little bit kneecaps the screenwriters. But it’s important to the continuity of the MCU at the moment, so I get why they needed to include it. It also just meant I wasn’t concerned about Fury during Secret Invasion, a show that killed off a few important characters. For now.