‘Secret Invasion’ star ominously compares the show’s big bad to a cult leader

After just one episode of Secret Invasion, one thing is abundantly clear; this ain’t your granddaddy’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. Indeed, gone are the quips, capes, and cacophony, and in its place is a much quieter, much more brutal ethos that looks all but ready to ravage the spirits of our heroes as much as the Skrulls wish to ravage the planet.

There is one familiarity that Secret Invasion has chosen to employ, and that’s the presence of a villain with the gravitas of an entire planet. We can only hope that his life won’t be cut short like so many scene-stealers before him, but we get the feeling that whatever Gravik gets up to in the coming chapters will leave more than enough of an impression anyway; he certainly left a mark in the inaugural episode’s closing minutes, after all.

Of course, it’s no easy task to craft a villain of Gravik’s weight, and actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, knowing this, opted to explore some dark corners of humanity to really capture what the extraterrestrial antagonist needed to be. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ben-Adir revealed that a big part of understanding Gravik came down to understanding cult leaders, which the actor modeled the character after.

“He’s had enough of listening to people who are full of shit, and it really became a simple thing to wrap my head around. I was like, “I understand this kind of feeling that creates these guys who behave in this way.” So the more I looked at cult leaders who are able to manipulate whole communities of people to do these horrific acts for justified reasons, it felt appropriate as the villain in this piece to explore the antisocial personality disorder side of things.”

He would go on to explain Gravik’s exact modus operandi, as it were; namely by being contentious in the most magnetic way possible.

The righteousness of what he’s doing is this complete crock of shit, and it’s just how he uses and manipulates people. He is testing everyone constantly, and that becomes quite fun to play.

With five episodes to go, there’s still plenty of time for the deep-seated politics of Secret Invasion‘s conflict to really rear their heads in a big way, and we can only imagine the heinous shape that Gravik’s plight will take once it gets palpably tangled up with the rest of the world.

Secret Invasion is now streaming on Disney Plus. New episodes will release every Wednesday until the series finale on July 26.