Didn't Watch Secret Invasion? Here's Everything You Need to Know for the MCU's Future

For real. Cobie Smulders’ character, one of the OGs of the MCU, was killed by a Skrull leader, Gravik, who looked like Nick Fury at the time. Her family was upset but it was largely inconsequential.

Talos, Ben Mendelsohn’s character from Captain Marvel and Spider-Man: Far From Home, was also killed by Gravik, this time during a Skrull attack on the U.S. president’s motorcade. Talos was protecting the president. His daughter was upset but it was largely inconsequential.

Yup, you read that right. Many died over the course of the series, specifically those following the rebel Gravik, but there are still plenty around. And it seems as if the hosts they are duplicating are all being held in one place, which is run by Sonya Falsworth, the British version of Nick Fury played by Olivia Colman. That’s a photo of it above.

Once the president (played by Dermot Mulroney) realized he was attacked by Skrulls, he made every one of them enemies of the state and vowed to kill them all if they didn’t leave. This didn’t make Nick Fury happy, as he was hoping for a more civil response, but now humanity has begun to murder people in cold blood they believe are Skrulls.

And yes, if this sounds like a gripping, interesting story, you’re right. So of course it was introduced in the last 15 minutes of the series.

We knew that Talos had a daughter, G’iah, who we saw as a child in Captain Marvel. Well, she’s grown up and is now played by Emilia Clarke. G’iah killed Gravik before he could start World War III and, in the process, was infused with the powers of every single superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She’s now working for Falsworth. Yes, it’s crazy and we wrote more about it here.

How did G’iah and Gravik access the powers of all those Avengers? Well, after the fight against Thanos in Avengers: Endgame, Nick Fury employed several Skrulls to go to the battlefield and collect blood samples. He was able to get every hero and villain and kept them together as something called the Harvest. The Harvest was used to make G’iah and Gravik all-powerful but it’s unclear if there’s any more of it.

Over the course of the series, we see both Don Cheadle and Martin Freeman’s characters from previous MCU movies. Only, in both cases, they’ve been taken over by Skrulls. We don’t know how long Ross was a Skrull (we assume after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), but Rhodey has, apparently, been one for much, much longer.

Again, you read that right. At some point between the events of Captain Marvel and Iron Man, Nick Fury married Varra, a Skrull played by Unbreakable’s Charlayne Woodard. The two have lived a complicated life but ultimately reconciled by the end of the series.

With Skrulls being hunted on Earth, Nick invites Varra to go with him back to SABER in space, which she says she’ll do for a little bit at least. That’s how the series ends, leading right into The Marvels.

For real. Oh, sure, lots of other stuff happened on the show. We learn Nick Fury promised the Skrulls a new home but couldn’t deliver. Before he gets the Harvest, Gravik has the power of Groot somehow. Fury walks around without an eyepatch. But in terms of actual events that will have ramifications moving ahead... that about sums it up.