Army Vet and Spymaster Nick Fury Returns in 'Secret Invasion'

The last time we saw Marvel's Nick Fury, he was aboard the flagship of Talos, leader of the Skrulls, a race of shape-shifting aliens and intergalactic refugees, apparently on vacation. In a new trailer dropped on the Disney+ Twitter page, Fury is returning to Earth for a new series, "Secret Invasion."

Based on the trailer, Fury's top-secret past may be catching up to him. The Avengers are mostly conspicuously absent in "Secret Invasion," as they always seem to be when Earth is threatened on Disney+ and not in theaters. The only Avenger to be found is Don Cheadle's James Rhodes, also known as the War Machine.

It seems some of the Skrulls are no longer interested in Talos' leadership and have created a rebel faction, a potentially dangerous situation for a population of shape-shifters. Somehow, Nick Fury becomes the most wanted man on the planet.

Samuel L. Jackson is returning as Fury, along with Cobie Smulders as former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill, Martin Freeman as CIA officer Everett Ross and Ben Mendelsohn as Gen. Talos. Joining them in the new spy thriller is "Game of Thrones" alum Emilia Clarke and Kingsley Ben-Adir from the sci-fi fantasy series "The OA."

A similar plot was explored in the 2008 Marvel Comics series "Secret Invasion," on which the new show is based. In that version, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Mr. Fantastic, Professor X and a handful of other superhuman thought leaders formed a group called the Illuminati to attack the Skrull Empire. They warn the Skrulls against invading Earth, but are captured and studied before escaping.

Eventually, the Skrull homeworld was destroyed and a new Skrull empress named Veranke leads her shape-shifting people to Earth anyway. It was revealed that Skrulls had secretly replaced many of Earth's superhuman heroes, including Spider-Woman, Elektra and many of the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

It takes pretty much every Marvel superhero and villain to finally end the Skrull threat in that comic series, so it's not much of a surprise that Nick Fury is going it alone against the Skrulls in this streaming adaptation.

If there's any one person who can handle a secret invasion, it's probably Fury. He joined the U.S. Army straight out of high school, and by the time he jumped ship to join the CIA, he was a colonel. There has to be something said for going from private to colonel in just a couple of years.

In the 1970s, Fury was a full-fledged Cold Warrior, operating against terrorist groups and Soviet espionage. He also runs into Vers, also known as Carol Danvers and Captain Marvel, while operating as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent during this time. It's where he gets the idea for what will become The Avengers -- and loses that eye.

Knowing how intelligence agencies' secret missions can cause a full-on war, "Secret Invasion'' is probably the beginning of Marvel's next big conflict. Watch how Fury gets a war going with a bunch of shape-shifters when "Secret Invasion'' premieres on Disney+ on June 21, 2023.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on LinkedIn.

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