After going so long without new and fresh content, Marvel fans are looking at a bright and booming future, with tons of features and TV shows on the way. But amidst all the big updates, not much has been shared just yet about Secret Invasion, which will bring Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn's Talos to the small screen for the first time. Now, we finally know who else will be joining them for the action-packed comic arc adaptation: One Night in Miami and High Fidelity star Kingsley Ben-Adir.
Having made awards-season waves for his work as Malcolm X in Regina King's Oscar-nominated historical drama One Night in Miami, Kingsley Ben-Adir is heading for completely new acting waters by joining the MCU with Secret Invasion. The increasingly popular actor will indeed take on a lead role opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn, although it isn't yet clear what that role will be. According to Deadline, Ben-Adir will portray at least one of the film's big bads, but we'll have to wait and see exactly what villain he'll play. Whoever it is, I expect it to be a stellar performance regardless, though I'll just say it right here that I will 100% lose my shit if he ends up playing the mega-antagonist Galactus. Cheers to that idea.
Perhaps the closest Kingsley Ben-Adir has come to taking on a Marvel movie is his role in Guy Ritchie's King Arthur movie, or perhaps his small role in World War Z, though the fantastical nature of The OA might also be comparable depending on how straightforward Secret Invasion will be. Anything involving Skrulls as co-leads can't be TOO straightforward. (His role as Barack Obama in Showtime's The Comey Rule probably won't factor in at all.)
The crossover storyline centers on a group of shape-shifting Skrulls who have lived clandestinely on Earth for years, and the game-changing events that go down once they start battling the Aveng...well, whatever super-powered hero team is around, I guess. Considering the comic book version of events, as written by Bryan Michael Bendis, utilize many characters that presumably won't be available within the MCU around the time that Secret Invasion will air, it's unclear exactly which Marvel headliners will be populating the series, and if it will indeed be a major crossover event as it was in the source material.
Secret Invasion will mark the third time that Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn's allegiance-shifting Skrull Talos appear in the same film. The actors first co-starred opposite Brie Larson in Captain Marvel, and Mendelsohn had an uncredited cameo in Spider-Man: Far From Home, which revealed Nick Fury's continued relationship with the Skrulls and S.W.O.R.D. Will we learn more about what to expect from this new series from other projects that go public before then? Almost definitely, though how direct those connections will be is anybody's guess.
The production start date for Secret Invasion hasn't yet been solidified, but here's hoping the show comes together in time to hit streaming audiences via Disney+ at some point in early 2022. And while we're hoping for things, my wishful money is on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's fast-paced action being a perfect follow-up to WandaVision's manic, grief-filled weirdness.
