Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury Des Willie/MARVEL
Warning: This story accommodates spoilers concerning the plot of Secret Invasion season 1.
Marvel’s latest Disney+ sequence, Secret Invasion, made its debut by seemingly killing off one of many franchise’s main characters.
The sequence, which adopted S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) as he goes head-to-head with shape-shifting aliens, premiered on Disney+ on Wednesday, June 21. Within the first episode, Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) appeared to fulfill her match by the hands of Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), the chief of a faction of Skrulls seeking to take over the Earth.
Within the aftermath of an explosion set off in Russia by Gravik and extra Skrulls (the identical aliens launched in 2019’s Captain Marvel), Maria is shot within the abdomen by the supervillain — who’s disguised as Nick. Gravik manages to flee earlier than the actual Nick holds his dying buddy in his arms. The episode ends with Nick’s Skrull ally, Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), dragging him away from the scene as Maria’s physique lies on the bottom.
Maria’s surprisingly darkish ending got here as a shock to followers. “’FINALLY SECRET INVASION!! Maria Hill will get her time to shin[e] —’” one fan tweeted on Wednesday, whereas another wrote, “Marvel. i swear. i BETTER see maria hill alive earlier than the present ends.”
Different social media customers famous that Maria’s sudden demise highlights how she’s been underused in Marvel Cinematic Universe. “The mcu by no means handled maria hill with the respect she deserved however to kill her like this within the pilot of a sequence she ought to be co-leading is so silly. what’s their downside??” one fan claimed.
Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury Des Willie/MARVEL
Smulders, 41, made her debut as the previous S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in 2012’s The Avengers. She went on to reprise the position within the movies Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity Conflict, Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Dwelling. She additionally made appearances within the Marvel exhibits Brokers of S.H.I.E.L.D., What If…? And Marvel’s Moon Woman and Satan Dinosaur.
After preventing many enemies with Nick over time — from undercover Hydra brokers to Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio — Maria’s destiny appears set in stone. Nonetheless, sequence director Ali Selim teased that he doesn’t know whether or not the character will return down the road.
“That’s a query for Kevin Feige — I don’t make these selections about who goes or when,” he revealed in a current interview with Polygon. “However I believed, ‘Oh, nice, a loss of life scene with Cobie Smulders. How enjoyable is that going to be?’”
The How I Met Your Mom alum, for her half, is grateful for her years-long journey within the comedian e-book franchise — even when Secret Invasion does mark her final outing as Maria. “I’ve been a fairly fortunate girl,” she instructed Leisure Tonight in an interview revealed on Wednesday.
Smulders — who shares two youngsters along with her husband, Taran Killam — additionally praised the sequence for taking over a “a lot darker” tone than different initiatives within the MCU. “I believe the cool factor that Marvel is doing are these sequence the place you get to take a look at these characters otherwise,” she continued. “You’ve extra time to see them of their private lives.”
New episodes of Secret Invasion air Wednesdays on Disney+.
