Here’s How Marvel’s Secret Invasion and The Marvels Are Connected

Marvel’s Secret Invasion is the latest entry in the extended MCU (counting both television and movies). With only six total episodes, the show is tasked with constantly keeping the stakes high, and providing enough mystery and intrigue to keep the stakes high and audiences guessing. So far it’s delivered, with major character deaths and twists. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has found a formidable opponent in Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), a Skrull determined to take over Earth for the survival of his species.

We first met Skrulls back in Captain Marvel, when Fury and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) discovered the Skrulls to be humble refugees looking for a new home. With that direct narrative connection, it’s no wonder people are curious how Secret Invasion ties to not only Captain Marvel, which debuted in 2019, but also how the show will connect to the upcoming film The Marvels, which will once again feature Fury and Captain Marvel.

We’re not sure yet how Secret Invasion fits into the greater MCU storyline, since it’s all about Nick Fury, and outside of that 2019 Captain Marvel story (which was set in 1995), we haven’t seen him in a significant way since 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.

We know Secret Invasion is set post-snap, but could The Marvels be a prequel to it? Could there be events leading up to Secret Invasion we see in the next major film? It’s possible the film is even a final send-off for Nick Fury (Jackson has played the role for years now, and a standalone series could serve as a fitting swan song), and The Marvels is the last time we’ll see him on a straightforward adventure.

So what’s the real timeline for The Marvels and Secret Invasion? We’ve got the information for you below.

Is Secret Invasion Set Before The Marvels?

It appears so. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Secret Invasion director Ali Selim talked about making sure the show connected with The Marvels in the way Marvel needed it to for the story.

“It’s just simply, ‘Where do you need him? You need him here? Great,’ Selim said. “And then we write into that. So that kind of stuff is very simple because it’s all above my pay grade.”

Jackson has also been clear about the show’s placement in the MCU timeline. “This series has to happen so that The Marvels can happen,” Samuel L. Jackson said in an interview with Empire Magazine (H/T Movieweb). “All these things are connected in an interesting sort of way.”

We know Secret Invasion takes place in the present day, and from Ms. Marvel, we know Kamala Khan’s story was also set in the present day. So it makes sense that The Marvels would continue moving forwardchronologically rather than, say, go back in time a few years. But for true confirmation, we’ll have to wait to see in The Marvels when it premieres.