It’s safe to say that the brand-new Secret Invasion trailer has caused all of our Phase Five hopes to ride on this Nick Fury-centric spy thriller; we’ve all been preparing for the series to cement itself as Marvel‘s answer to Andor for quite some time now, but we certainly weren’t expecting the trailer to make a statement of the magnitude that it did.
The aptly titled Secret Invasion will follow Nick Fury as he wages a war against the Skrulls, a shapeshifting alien race that has covertly slotted themselves into a number of powerful political positions on Earth. As if that wasn’t enough, a new threat has emerged in the form of radical Skrull rebellion leader Gravik, who looks all but ready to take the “secret” out of his race’s invasion. With Everett Ross, Maria Hill, and friendly Skrull Talos at his side, Fury will nevertheless need to keep his wits and weapons about him if he wants to emerge victorious.
Of course, it’s the Skrulls who will be holding the narrative meat of Secret Invasion together, and if the stars align, this extraterrestrial campaign will have an even bigger role to play in the MCU as the years go on (considering the comic storyline of Secret Invasion happens to be one of Marvel’s biggest crossover events ever, we reckon this series will be something of a precursor).
But so far, the disguise-happy visitors have simply bided their time, sneaking themselves into the odd Marvel project as they continue to expand their role in the MCU mythos — a role that, evidently, they’ve been nursing since before the Avengers were formed.
With that, here’s every MCU appearance of the Skrull alien race presented in chronological order.
Captain Marvel
And by chronological, we mean in the sense of the MCU’s timeline, and not many of those stories go further back than Captain Marvel, which also happens to be home to one of the most prolific Skrull appearances in the franchise.
The war between the Skrulls and Kree, another alien race whose DNA happens to reside in the titular heroine, is one of the central conflicts in Captain Marvel, often reflected in the number of times Carol Danvers and a young Nick Fury go toe-to-toe with various members of the species.
It doesn’t take long for the two heroes to change sides, however, as they soon happen upon a group of Skrull refugees who are looking for a new home in the wake of the Kree Empire’s destruction of their home planet.
The duo was successful in helping to fight back against the Kree Empire, namely by forcing Kree officer Ronan the Accuser to retreat, but it didn’t solve the problem of finding the Skrulls a new home planet, and by the looks of Secret Invasion, that problem remains unsolved as Skrull patience wears dangerously thin.
WandaVision
Fast forward to a post-Endgame world, and the Skrulls don’t have quite as much presence as they did in Captain Marvel, but then again, they don’t call it a secret invasion for nothing.
In the final episode of WandaVision, a Skrull posing as an FBI agent approached Monica Rambeau, who had just finished participating in a power-packed fiasco that ultimately freed Westview, and roped her into a meeting with Nick Fury — who the Skrull only previously identified as a friend of Rambeau’s mother, who also happens to be an old friend of Carol Danvers.
This meeting will presumably lead to the events of The Marvels, where Monica Rambeau will be forming a superpowered trio with Danvers and Kamala Khan, but beyond being the middleman for that, we haven’t seen much of this particular Skrull elsewhere.
Spider-Man: Far From Home
It was during the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: Far From Home that we caught wind something wasn’t quite right in the world of Nick Fury.
After Mysterio managed to reveal Peter’s true identity to the world from beyond the grave, we were shown the truth about Fury and Maria Hill, who turned out to be Skrulls in disguise this whole time while the real Fury was pulling strings from the safety of a Skrull spaceship. The two Skrulls in question, however, were none other than Talos and Soren.
Talos, of course, is second only to Fury himself in terms of the Secret Invasion pecking order, and with a role as intriguing as Fury’s closest ally who also happens to be a Skrull, he will no doubt be a key participant in whatever political nuances end up unfolding in the show and beyond.
Soren, meanwhile, is the wife of Talos and an original character in the MCU. She’s not confirmed to show up in the series as of yet, but considering Talos’ daughter G’iah (played by Emilia Clarke) is confirmed to be appearing, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if Soren returns for Secret Invasion alongside her husband.
Upcoming: Secret Invasion
That, of course, brings us to the main event of Secret Invasion, which will no doubt dethrone Captain Marvel as the MCU’s premier Skrull-centric story.
Beyond Talos, we’ll be introduced to a wide array of new Skrull faces, including a now grown-up G’iah, the aforementioned daughter of Talos who has a rather contentious attitude toward Fury and her father, and the series’ antagonist Gravik, the leader of a new, rebellious sect of Skrull freedom fighters. If certain theories are to be believed, they just might be the piece of the puzzle we need to bring the Fantastic Four into the picture.
Given that Secret Invasion still has to cook for another two months before its release, we can only assume so much about the show’s Skrull-specific nuances, but the one thing we know for sure is that there will be Skrulls aplenty.
Upcoming: The Marvels
Elsewhere, it’s highly likely the Skrulls will feature in the upcoming film The Marvels, given that Kevin Feige himself revealed back in February that the film will be borrowing from the Kree-Skrull War comic book storyline, as well as picking up from the ending of Captain Marvel, which, again, is one of the most Skrull-heavy projects ever put out by Marvel.
Furthermore, a Skrull was directly involved in recruiting Monica Rambeau for a meeting with Nick Fury per WandaVision, so it’s no difficult task to imagine the aliens getting further involved in the logistics of bringing Monica into the fray.
In any case, this is more of an educated guess than a confirmed appearance, but all signs are pointing to more Skrulls in The Marvels — just as well, too, considering we probably won’t want that train to stop after Secret Invasion.
Honorable mentions: Loki & What If…?
We’re breaking our chronology rule here due to the events of Loki and What If…? technically taking place outside of the MCU timeline as we know it, and simply because there’s not much to talk about regarding these particular Skrull appearances.
In the first episode of the first season of Loki, a Skrull can be seen in the lobby of the Time Variance Authority, being assisted at a desk. Their appearance is about as brief as it gets and doesn’t contribute much beyond the MCU’s penchant for subtle worldbuilding, which we suppose is an important endeavor in its own way.
As for What If…?, a group of Skrulls happens to be among the partygoers in the episode “What If… Thor Were an Only Child,” where their ability to shapeshift proves to be a great party trick and a marked source of delight for the tipsy god of thunder. Members of the Skrull species also appear in a non-speaking role in the episode “What If… Ultron Won?”
