‘Secret Invasion’ Was Inspired by ‘The Third Man’ and ‘The Searchers’, as Well as Real-World Events
With Secret Invasion, Marvel Studios is going back to the spy-thriller genre they started to explore with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and previously with 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This time, it’s not featuring Bucky Barnes or the star-spangled hero, but rather the character Steve Rogers once called The Spy.
Ali Selim, who directed all episodes of the series, talked to Empire Magazine as part of their new issue about the cinematic influences that inspired Secret Invasion:
“We talked a lot about classic espionage noir, like ‘The Third Man’. 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 goes on to state the central question of the show, which is very much inspired by real life:
“Who is a terrorist and why are they a terrorist? 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.”
Gravik, played by One Night in Miami breakout star Kingsley Ben-Adir, is the main villain of the show, which is saying something for a story where everyone will be hiding secrets, heroes and foes alike. Fury is our focal point, but we will also meet with Skrull leader Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), who was already in Captain Marvel, and his young daughter, who is now grown up and played by Emilia Clarke. She has been radicalized after humanity failed to deliver on the promise to give them a land of their own. (Does that ring a bell?)
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.
