Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Secret Invasion finale.
The dust is settling on Secret Invasion and sadly it looks set to occupy a D-tier slot in the Marvel Studios Disney Plus rankings. But while the consensus is that the finale was an anticlimax, the show should still have a major impact on the MCU’s future.
Among many other things, the President of the United States has ordered that all Skrulls be killed, directly resulting in the assassination of the (non-Skrull) British Prime Minister outside Downing Street. The only ray of light is the mention of a peace summit between the Skrulls and Kree, so perhaps there’s some light at the end of the tunnel.
But Emilia Clarke’s G’iah may be the most consequential part of Secret Invasion, as she’s now arguably the most powerful individual in the entire MCU.
The G’iah Hypothesis
So, to recap, the Secret Invasion finale saw G’iah disguise herself as Nick Fury in order to infiltrate Gravik’s base. While there she gave Gravik “The Harvest”, a vial said to contain the DNA of practically every character who fought in Avengers: Endgame‘s Battle for Earth.
Believing that G’iah was Fury, Gravik activated the Super-Skrull machine with her inside, granting both of them multiple superpowers. They fought, Gravik was killed, and now G’iah has teamed up with Olivia Colman’s Sonya in an effort to stop President Ritson’s Skrull genocide.
As many fans quickly pointed out, having a character as powerful as G’iah as a free agent threatens to break the MCU. The powers of the Hulk, Thanos, and Captain Marvel combined in one person would be overkill alone, let alone the many other heroes tossed in there. Surely the next time there’s a major threat we’ll be wondering why G’iah isn’t involved.
But perhaps there’s a way to get her out of the picture?
How do you solve a problem like G’iah?
G’iah may have walked out of Secret Invasion a hero after defeating Gravik, though it’s easy to imagine her becoming a major MCU villain. After all, just weeks before the events of the show she was on board with Gravik’s plan to foment a nuclear war, wipe out humanity, and let Skrulls make Earth their new home.
We’ve seen her explain to her Talos that she doesn’t believe in trying to get on humanity’s good side in the hopes of receiving charity. The fact that the world appears to be on an anti-Skrull pogrom should only harden her resolve to violently fight for her people.
We can easily imagine her as a very sympathetic villain in a future story, though let’s face it, our “heroes” battling someone trying to stop their people from being exterminated is a tricky needle for any writer to thread.
The Marvels villain in the making?
On paper, G’iah would make a great antagonist for The Marvels. Her receiving Captain Marvel’s powers theoretically means she should become involved in the power tangle that sees Carol, Monica, and Kamala switching places, as a Skrull she has a place in Carol’s past, and there’s her obvious link to Nick Fury.
As of the end of Secret Invasion, she has a bone to pick with Fury for once again heading off into space and leaving the Skrulls to face a miserable fate, so we want to see this unfinished business resolved.
That said, Marvel Studios don’t appear to have thought that far ahead and unless they’re playing their cards very close to their chest, Emilia Clarke doesn’t appear to be in The Marvels.
But G’iah remains an interesting villain for Kevin Feige to keep in his back pocket for later use. Though, and we can’t underline this enough, taking a broadly sympathetic Emilia Clarke character, giving her incredible powers, and then watching her go off the rails in a violent spiral of bloody revenge hasn’t exactly proved to be a fan pleaser in the past.
The other, more depressing option is that G’iah is just never mentioned again in the MCU and the overall story just pretends Secret Invasion didn’t happen. This feels worryingly likely, but fingers crossed we haven’t seen the last of her.
