The following story contains spoilers for Secret Invasion Episode 6, “Home.”
Secret Invasion was Marvel’s take on a spy/espionage series, and it was… well, it was fine. While the members of its A-list cast—including Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Emilia Clarke, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Olivia Colman—were at the top of their game throughout, the show kind of just ran through the spy genre’s status quo, with some decent action here and a solid twist there, but never really delivering on that wow moment (and visually was constantly unremarkable).
Still, just as with everything in the ever-expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe, there’s an additional component to all of this: wondering just how everyone and everything could, potentially, fit into the future. And there’s no better time to assess this than at an ending.
The ending of Secret Invasion sets a bunch of things in motion. G’iah (Clarke) has now, in a stunningly understated manner, become presumably the most powerful being in the entire MCU (after killing Gravik (Ben-Adir); the two of them gained the powers of, we think, every Marvel hero from “The Harvest), and so MI6 director Sonya Falsworth (Colman) thinks that these two could have a mutually beneficial relationship. They go off in a car together and find a random warehouse full of bodies in pods. Not sure what this is leading toward, but it’s presumably something.
There’s also Nick Fury (Jackson) and his Skrull wife, Priscilla (Charlayne Woodard). Fury is returning to SABER in space (to get ready for the adventure we know he’s going to have in The Marvels), and Priscilla wants to stay and continue her work on earth (despite the fact, and we’ll get to this below, that there’s a horrific war on everyone like her). They have a bizarre human/Skrull smooch, and set off to space.
Neither of these, however, is the most important takeaway from the Secret Invasion finale. While there’s certainly much to be discussed as well about Rhodey and what his whole deal has been (upcoming, presumably, in Armor Wars), we’re mostly intrigued by the speech that President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney) gave—and the impact it’ll have on things going forward.
How does the Secret Invasion ending set up the future of the MCU?
In the aftermath of Gravik’s attempt at forcing World War III into action and the attack on President Ritson’s life led by the fake Rhodey he trusted, the President goes into full xenophobic war monger mode. In a speech we see broadcast on television, he tells the American public about the existence of Skrulls, and announces that he’s making it law that any species born off-world are now, officially, enemy combatants of the U.S.
For those of you paying attention at home, that means that heroes like Thor, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Eternals are all immediately considered enemies of the state. People like Carol Danvers and Bruce Banner (both born on earth but currently spending quite a bit of time away) are probably up in the air.
After Ritson’s speech, we see the fallout: vigilantes everywhere are taking it to themselves to straight-up murder people who they think are Skrulls (sometimes they’re right, and sometimes they’re not). There is literal murder of innocent people happening on the streets because of Ritson’s decision to broadcast that speech.
What this sets up for the longterm future of the MCU is a very public hatred among people, already, for those who are different. We already saw the start of this in Ms. Marvel, and here we have a continuation. In The Marvels, we’ll see Nick Fury in space, helping the three heroes—Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan—as they work through a mission above a planet that now may hate them. Kamala is already, as we know, the MCU’s first mutant, and the public hating mutants is, of course, a key piece to have in place when telling an X-Men story. And we know that X-Men (and, in particular, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine) will be involved in next year’s Deadpool 3. We’ll see where that goes.
Ritson’s role in the government also serves to set up the future of Captain America: New World Order (where Thunderbolt Ross, now played by Harrison Ford, is set to have a key role) and Thunderbolts. Could Ritson’s speech lead us down a road that pits Val’s Thunderbolts team against some of our heroes? We haven’t gotten any word on Mulroney returning for future projects, so it’s interesting to wonder how this character will tie in with whatever position Thunderbolt Ross is currently holding.
All we can do now is just wait and see.
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
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