‘He’s lost a little bit of his mojo’: ‘Secret Invasion’ director promises a different side of Nick Fury

Secret Invasion enters the fold in less than a week, and may just hold the distinction of being the sneakiest Marvel Cinematic Universe entry in history. Indeed, it seems like we went from the incoming Disney Plus miniseries being months and months away to stepping discreetly on our doorsteps in the blink of an eye; perhaps it’s an omen to the fact that we’ll never see the Skrulls coming?

Whatever the case, the MCU’s apparent answer to Andor looks all but ready to shake up the franchise in a big way; gone is the flashy comic book spectacle we’ve come to expect from Kevin Feige and company, and in its place looks to be a gritty spy thriller that doesn’t seem to want to hold back on dramatic tension.

Anchoring it all is Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury, a longtime staple of the MCU who was long overdue for a solo project all his own, but this isn’t quite the same Fury that first popped up in Iron Man‘s post-credits scene. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, director Ali Selim promised that a whole new shade of the character would rear his head in, a shade that the filmmaker is relishing the opportunity to show the world.

“Unlike any other Marvel show that we’ve ever seen, [Secret Invasion] is really about a human being whose feet are on the ground, and as episode one starts out, he’s older, he’s lost a little bit of his mojo. And I think coming out of the pandemic, and being an older guy, I understood that and I think it really drew me to what this story had to say about discovery and trust and faith in moral codes.”

Disney Plus-exclusive Marvel content has always leaned towards varying tonal shifts (WandaVision, Werewolf by Night, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law are all great examples), but Secret Invasion looks to be the most grounded project yet. Despite early reviews being somewhat lackluster, it will be infinitely interesting to see how this approach gels with the overall Marvel ethos.

The first episode of Secret Invasion arrives on Disney Plus on June 21, after which the remaining five episodes will release on a weekly basis.