Secret Invasion delivered more than its fair share of surprises, though the biggest came when we learned Rhodey had been replaced by a shape-shifting Skrull.
We'd eventually learn Colonel James Rhodes was Raava, an obscure character from the comic books who has little to nothing in common with the MCU's version. Regardless, the fact Raava was a female Skrull impersonating War Machine proved to be a particularly intriguing moment in the show.
It was a shame that we never got to spend any real time with the alien to see what she was like while not wearing Rhodey's face. However, Secret Invasion director Ali Selim has now elaborated on Raava's role in the Disney+ series.
"There was a point in the beginning where we were designing the Skrulls and we made the comment 'Would a Skrull pick a human that had its facial features?'" he tells Variety. "If I looked a little bit like this as a Skrull, why would I go into hiding and find a human like that looked kind of like me?"
"So, we deviated from that and said, what we have to do is really show that, in a lot of instances, these people are hiding out in a human shell, and they’re going to pick a completely different race, a different age, and why not a different gender? Why couldn’t a female Skrull become a male [human]? And that’s where that came from - let’s just be smart about how they’re going into hiding."
"From there," Selim added, "it was Don Cheadle [filling in] the details of what that would mean to him. He’s brilliant."
This is actually something we'd have liked to see more of in Secret Invasion, but after those first two instalments, every episode clocked in at around 40 minutes or less. During the same interview, Selim was asked whether a super-sized finale was ever considered.
"It's really just practical exploration and the practical evolution of a story...I don’t mean to make it practical film school stuff, but ultimately, you just watch the cuts, and you say, 'That’s too long.' 'That’s unfocused.' 'Looked good on the page, sounded good on the set, not helping our story at this point.'"
"And there’s also some sense of ramping up to an explosive ending - which to my mind means you go faster, not bigger and bloatier."
All six episodes of Secret Invasion are currently streaming on Disney+.