VANITY FAIR Who are you, really? That question is at the core of the new Marvel series Secret Invasion, which follows Samuel L. Jackson’s spymaster, Nick Fury, as he uncovers a conspiracy to quietly install double agents into positions of power around the world. In a traditional espionage story, these might be operatives from hostile rival nations, but in the Marvel Cinematic Universe the infiltration has an otherworldly origin: shape-shifting green-skinned extraterrestrials known as Skrulls, who can perfectly simulate any human being at will. Figuring out who is who becomes especially daunting.

“We don’t know who’s a friend, who’s the enemy,” Jackson tells Vanity Fair for this exclusive deep dive into the upcoming series. “There’s a political aspect that kind of fits into where we are right now: Who’s okay? Who’s not? What happens when people get afraid and don’t understand other people? You can’t tell who’s innocent and who’s guilty in this particular instance.”

Nick Fury first became an ally of the Skrulls in the 1990s-set Captain Marvel, when he and Ben Mendelsohn’s alien leader, Talos, fought side by side. In that story, the Skrulls were not a threat, just the innocent victims of a galactic war who needed help. But decades have passed since then. “He told the Skrulls they were trying to find them a place to live,” Jackson says. “He promised them they were going to find them a planet or somewhere they could be. And that’s not going so well.”

Now a group of Skrull extremists has arisen—and they’re tired of asking and tired of waiting. The clandestine takeover in Secret Invasion is their solution, and Gravik (played by One Night in Miami’s Kingsley Ben-Adir) is the resistance leader who has radicalized them. He breaks from the Talos-led faction to seize the resources they need—first quietly, while in disguise, then by force, if needed. The storyline mirrors countless true stories from actual history when displaced groups have first fractured, then lashed out after patience and diplomacy are exhausted.

“I think any time that you get cultures that have significant tensions between groups of people, then you can find a corollary,” says Mendelsohn. “The Cold War stuff is the big one that jumps out, but there is plenty of strife between groups of people that this addresses.”

The conflict is not just geopolitical, it’s personal. One Skrull radical, Emilia Clarke’s G’iah (pronounced “Guy-ah”), has issues with Talos that go far deeper than most. While this is the Game of Thrones actor’s first appearance in a Marvel Studios project, her character has actually appeared before.

(Fair warning—the showrunners don’t consider the following a spoiler, but some fans might.)

When asked about Clarke’s character, Jackson points out a scene from 2019’s Captain Marvel in which Fury witnesses a reunion between Mendelsohn’s Talos and his long-lost Skrull family aboard a space station orbiting Earth. “Remember when Ben was there with his wife and daughter?” Jackson says. “She’s the little Skrull girl grown up. She’s his daughter.”

Growing up amidst constant war makes it hard to ever stop fighting. Living in the shadow of a powerful parent makes the situation even more dire—especially when they’re a leader who is seen as having failed. In G’iah’s case, resistance was virtually inevitable. “It’s hardened her, for sure. There’s a kind of punk feeling that you get from this girl,” Clarke says. “She’s a refugee kid who’s had Talos for a dad, you know what I mean? Maybe the fact that we didn’t know he had a kid up until this point tells you everything you need to know about their relationship.”
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