‘Secret Invasion’ director says the MCU’s darkest series yet is a full-blown noir

The campaign to save Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is officially underway; with James Gunn and company having done their duties with the rousing capstone that is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, fans can now look ahead to their next expected champion in Secret Invasion, the gritty, Nick Fury-centric thriller series due on Disney Plus this summer.

From the teases we’ve seen so far, from the show’s gripping political edge to its MCU-original characters to the overwhelming tonal shift from what we’re used to seeing out of Marvel, it’s hard to blame anyone for designating Secret Invasion as Marvel’s next surefire win; the masses, ever hungry for something fresh, seem to be in need of the show delivering on such a darkly captivating premise.

And according to the show’s director Ali Selim, we can in fact count on all of our wildest dreams (namely Samuel L. Jackson leading a starkly grounded political thriller, apparently) coming true. In an interview with Empire Online, Selim was all too happy to let us know that Secret Invasion‘s noir elements will be as palpable as they come.

“As Nick moves through it, he walks out of a noir and into a Western. He becomes the lone gunslinger walking down Main Street looking for bad guys to vanquish. We go from The Third Man to John Wayne in The Searchers, and Sam walks effortlessly from one into the next.”

He would go on to note how the moral grayness that’s set to permeate the show not only reinforces these unique noir brushes, but speak to some very important and timely real-world questions.

“Especially here in the States, it’s easy to say we’re the good guys and they’re the terrorists. The interesting thing for me is to ask: how did we as a nation state influence the environment these people come from? Gravik is not just a bad guy with a bomb. His story and how he came to this grievance is clearly explored here. That doesn’t just refer back to movie history and noir; it refers to our times today.”

Indeed, it sounds like we can expect something brand new out of Marvel’s dwindling bag of tricks, and we can only hope that Secret Invasion joins Vol. 3 as the exciting cavalry that the Multiverse Saga desperately seems to need.

Secret Invasion will release to Disney Plus on June 21.