Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has recently revealed the MCU timeline and story details of Marvel's highly-anticipated Secret Invasion television series. Announced in 2020, the six-episode series will adapt the popular Skrull invasion story arc from the original comics which saw the alien shape-shifting species infiltrate all aspects of life on Earth. First introduced in 2019's Captain Marvel, the Skrull were in a long-running war with another alien species known as the Kree. However, the film featured the Skrull as victims and portrayed them in a positive light.
Secret Invasion sees the return of Samuel L. Jackson to the MCU, reprising his role as former S.H.I.E.L.D head Nick Fury. He will be joined by Colbie Smulders as Fury's longtime colleague Maria Hill, Martin Freeman as CIA agent Everett Ross, and Don Cheadle as James Rhodes, also known as the armored hero War Machine. Ben Mendelsohn will reprise his role as Talos, one of the leaders of the remaining Skrull refugees. He was last seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home impersonating Fury who was off-world on a mission with the Skrulls.
Feige (via The Hollywood Handle) has recently detailed when the Secret Invasion television series will take place within the MCU timeline. Very little information has been previously revealed about the project, or how much of it will adhere to the original source material. According to the Marvel President, the upcoming show will feature "during the Blip, when half of the Universe was decimated by Thanos, and will explore the events that happened in that period."
This revelation has great implications for Fury's whereabouts during the five-year span of the Blip when Thanos erased half of all life from the universe. Although not a prominent character in Avengers: Infinity War, Fury was featured in the post-credits sequence which showed both him and Hill fading from existence immediately following Thanos' use of the Infinity Stones. With Fury being a central character in the Secret Invasion series, there would need to be a valid explanation as to why he and Hill are still alive following the events of Avengers: Infinity War.
Setting the Secret Invasion series during the Blip, prior to many of MCU's Phase 4 films, raises a lot of questions. Even though Avengers: Endgame took place during that period, Fury did not appear in the film until his cameo at Tony Stark's funeral. It was apparent that the surviving members of the Avengers believed that he was killed alongside half of life in the universe. Although it was deemed impossible to have a person return from being removed through the use of the Infinity Stones, perhaps the show will feature a method created by the highly-intelligent Skrulls to reconstruct Fury with advanced technology. However, it is quite plausible that the Nick Fury the audience witnessed turning into dust at the end of Avengers: Infinity War was not Fury at all, but Talos, or another Skrull, as Fury. This would allow Fury to prominently feature in Marvel's upcoming series. Exactly how Fury could have survived the Blip remains to be seen without further information. No release date for Marvel's Secret Invasion has been set, however, it is rumored to be slated for late 2022 or early 2023.
Source: The Hollywood Handle
