‘Secret Invasion’: Samuel L Jackson on How the New Series Will Bring Humanity to Nick Fury
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Disney Plus’ Secret Invasion. Photo via Empire Magazine.
Marvel Studios is coming back to the big screen this week, with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but we are also less than two months away from its return to the small screen, with Secret Invasion hitting Disney Plus on June 21.
The last time we saw an episode of Marvel TV was back in October, and it featured Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk. It’s been over six months, though considering the relentless output that the studio had during 2021 and 2022, that might be for the best. Regardless, Secret Invasion has already released two trailers that preview a very interesting spy thriller with Nick Fury at the center of a world conspiracy that has the Skrulls taking over Government institutions all around the globe.
The series is the main focus of the latest issue of Empire Magazine, and as part of that coverage, they’ve released a new photo from the series (see above) and snippets of an interview with Samuel L. Jackson, who returns for the series as Nick Fury. According to him, Secret Invasion will allow us to see a vulnerable Fury for the first time:
“All those things are part of a Nick Fury that’s invulnerable. Here you have a guy who’s showing his face, and showing his age. It’s an opportunity to humanise someone that everybody thinks is superhuman.”
(L-R): Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as Talos in Marvel Studios’ SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Des Willie. © 2023 MARVEL.
Producer Jonathan Schwartz also weighed in on this issue, and how they will use his humanity to increase the tension of the series:
“One of the things we really wanted to bring to this show that makes it a little bit unique in the Marvel universe is vulnerability. Nick Fury is just a human, Maria Hill [Cobie Smulders] is just a human. A single bullet could take them out. That’s something we don’t always get in the MCU. To bring that level of tension, fear and vulnerability into one of our shows was really exciting.”
For Jackson, it was an exciting prospect:
“I had to figure out some stuff and work out some new things, which I’ve been trying to do for a while. It’s great to have an opportunity to find out who he was and delve into how much of a toll his job actually takes on his personal life.”
(L-R): Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Marvel Studios’ SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Des Willie. © 2023 MARVEL.
The plot of Secret Invasion was put in motion 30 in-universe years ago, during the events of 2019’s Captain Marvel. At the end of the film, Fury promised the Skrulls a new home, and he still hasn’t delivered on that. The Skrulls are going impatient, and now that Fury is off-planet, it’s their perfect time to strike. And even though he may have his solo outing for the first time, it doesn’t mean it will be the last time we see him, as Jackson would like to keep playing the character:
“I love playing him, and I love the fact that they’re opening him up to all these other possibilities and this whole life that he has. So hopefully I’m not done, and in this new phase of the MCU I’ll still be floating in and out of there somehow, some way.”
The cast includes Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Emilia Clarke as G’iah (Talos’ daughter, whom we met in Captain Marvel), Kingsley Ben-Adir as Gravik, Olivia Colman as a high-ranking MI6 agent, Don Cheadle as Rhodey, Martin Freeman as Agent Ross, Christopher McDonald, and Killian Scott, both of the latter in undisclosed roles. Kyle Bradstreet is the head writer, with Ali Selim directing the series.
Secret Invasion debuts on Disney Plus on June 21. It will be the first Marvel series of 2023, and will be followed up by Loki season 2 sometime in the summer/early fall.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
