In the closing moments of Secret Invasion's season premiere, Maria Hill is gunned down by Nick Fury. It wasn't long until we discovered it was really Skrull leader Gravik in disguise, but Maria died in the former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director's arms likely believing her friend had pulled the trigger.
We had expected Cobie Smulders to have a lead role in the Disney+ series, but Fury is now on his own in this fight against the shape-shifting alien invaders.
Talking to Vanity Fair, the actress said she's relieved to finally be able to share Maria's fate with the world and was asked if the character is really dead. "I mean, I didn’t know I was an alien in Spider-Man," she joked, adding "There is a Multiverse now, so anything is possible. But I’m pretty sure this is it."
Confirming she "[doesn't] know anything" about reports Maria will be in The Marvels, Smulders explained, "It felt and it feels strange. Maria Hill’s passing is very real, and it’s shocking, and it feels very human. It was a sad day."
A lot of fans have been quick to criticise Marvel Studios for giving Maria such a small role in the series, and the actress acknowledged that it "would've been great" to do more.
"I trust that Marvel is doing the storyline that they think is best. I feel bad if [fan] reaction is negative and they don’t like it, but I think that there is also something positive to take away from that. They were so connected to the story and these characters that they cared. That is beautiful and wonderful."
As for how she feels about the way Maria meets her maker, Smulders said, "To have Fury see himself, to know that Hill thinks that Fury shot her—that’s the pain of that moment. I like to think that she, by the time she passed, knew it wasn’t him. Initially, it’s terrifying and so confusing. But I’d like to think she got there."
We'll never know, but her demise was definitely a clever way to start Secret Invasion with a bang. It sounds like Smulders is okay with bidding farewell to the role, though it can't have been easy seeing as this is a character she's been playing on and off since 2012's The Avengers.
Secret Invasion's first episode is now streaming on Disney+.