Secret Invasion premiered on Disney+ today, and the first episode of Marvel Studios' "game-changing espionage thriller" seems to have gone over pretty well with fans... for the most part.
The show features the return of several familiar faces, including Cobie Smulders as former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and Nick Fury's right-hand woman, Maria Hill.
In her previous MCU appearances, Hill has really only played a minor supporting role, usually in action sequences that didn't allow us to get to know very much about the character. In Secret Invasion, Smulders feels that she was given the opportunity to bring some more depth to Maria.
“It’s the most depth I’ve been able to show of Maria Hill,” she tells TV Line. “That’s the beauty of these series that Marvel is doing, you’re able to really get backstory of these characters. What are the conversations that happen when they’re just sitting around drinking coffee? It’s not like, ‘We’ve gotta get the bad guys! We’ve gotta get the thing! We’ve gotta save the world again!’ It’s like, ‘Let’s just have a chat, let’s go for a walk.’ We get to see those kinds of moments and be a bit more intimate with the characters.”
Major spoilers follow.
Unfortunately, Hill's return is short-lived. While she does get some very effective scenes with Fury and Talos beforehand, Skrull General Gravik - disguised as Fury - shoots her dead at the end of the episode.
To Smulders' point, though, we do still learn a little more about the character in the next instalment.
What did you think of the season premiere of Secret Invasion? Let us know in the comments.
"In Marvel Studios’ new series Secret Invasion, set in the present day MCU, Nick Fury learns of a clandestine invasion of Earth by a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls. Fury joins his allies, including Everett Ross, Maria Hill and the Skrull Talos, who has made a life for himself on Earth. Together they race against time to thwart an imminent Skrull invasion and save humanity."
The series stars Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Cobie Smulders, Martin Freeman, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Charlayne Woodard, Killian Scott, Samuel Adewunmi, Dermot Mulroney, Christopher McDonald, Katie Finneran, with Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, and Don Cheadle.
Ali Selim directs and executive-produces, along with fellow executive producers Kevin Feige, Jonathan Schwartz, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Samuel L. Jackson, Ali Selim, Kyle Bradstreet and Brian Tucker. Kyle Bradstreet is also the head writer, and Jennifer L. Booth, Allana Williams and Brant Englestein serve as co-executive producers.