Ever since it was first revealed that Skrulls would be brought into the MCU by way of this year’s Captain Marvel, the shape-shifting aliens have become a regular fixture in online fan theories. At this point, there’s hardly a character in the Marvel franchise who hasn’t been accused in one fan forum or another of being a secret Skrull, and in the recent Spider-Man: Far From Home, this mass paranoia was only encouraged when it was revealed that Nick Fury wasn’t actually Nick Fury after all.
But while Far From Home’s post-credits scene left no room for doubt that Fury had been a Skrull for the whole movie, it also raised the question of exactly when this sneaky switcheroo took place. And in a new Reddit theory that’s currently making the rounds, user Jacob_wallace suggests an answer.
According to this new line of speculation, we’ve been watching a fake Fury ever since the real one almost died halfway through 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The theory goes that Fury was at death’s door after he was ambushed by the Winter Soldier, but was taken into space to be healed by Skrull technology, with Talos filling in for him ever since.
As evidence, the theory draws on the scene in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron where he eats a diagonally cut sandwich, arguing that this contradicts his claim in Captain Marvel that he cannot eat toast if it’s cut diagonally. In the replies, user Kaizen_2582 also points out that Mariah Hill – who’s also revealed to be a Skrull in Far From Home – repeatedly calls him “Nick,” despite his claim in Captain Marvel that no one calls him that.
The evidence is pretty thin, and you can imagine that not every fan would be thrilled to find out that Fury’s journey throughout Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and the second half of Winter Soldier was all one big ruse. Still, feel free to draw your own conclusions until Marvel comes up with some official answers.
In any case, it’s unclear when we might see Nick Fury again – be it the Skrull version, or the real thing – but here’s hoping that Captain Marvel 2 can provide some context to Far From Home’s final twist when it arrives in theaters, whenever that may be.