Disney Marvel announced the show Secret Invasion will see the return of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.
There is no shortage of highly decorated actors and actresses in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that list is reportedly set to expand with the addition of Olivia Colman.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Colman is in negotiations to join the cast of Secret Invasion, an announced Disney Plus series that currently has no set release date. The show will reportedly see the return of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, a leader of a race of shapeshifting aliens called Skrulls. In March, Deadline reported that Kingsley Ben-Adir also joined the cast of Secret Invasion as a villain.
Colman, 47, has raked in acting awards over the last five years, earning a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in The Favourite and Golden Globes for her roles in The Night Manager, The Favourite, and The Crown. She’s nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the upcoming Academy Awards for her performance in The Father.
What We Know So Far About ‘Secret Invasion’
There are plenty of MCU movies and television series set to come out in the crowded slate of Phase 4 works before Secret Invasion hits Disney Plus. With it so far off on the horizon, details about the show are limited.
What we do know is that Fury and Talos met in Captain Marvel, which was set in 1995. In Spider-Man: Far From Home, it appeared as though Fury was helping Peter Parker throughout the film, but a post-credits scene revealed he was relaxing in space and had tasked Talos with temporarily impersonating him on Earth.
Most recently, in a mid-credits scene after the WandaVision finale, Monica Rambeau was approached by a Skrull who told her that an old friend of her mother’s (presumably Fury) wanted to meet with her in space.
Those scenes have laid the groundwork for a Secret Invasion series that will likely be based on a comic book storyline of the same name that ran in 2008. The limited series told the story of a long-term and gradual invasion of Earth led by Princess Veranke. Several heroes are secretly replaced by Skrulls in the series, with Veranke taking the form of Spider-Woman.
Still, there are already several differences already in place in the MCU that will force significant changes. For one, while the Skrulls were villains in the comics, they have been a friendly race of a refugees in the MCU. There are also many heroes impersonated in the comic storyline, including Spider-Woman, who have not been introduced in the MCU.
Olivia Colman Won’t Be the First Oscar-Winner in the MCU
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Marvel Studios set a high casting bar from the start when the film that started it all, Iron Man, starred Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, and Jeff Bridges. All four had already been nominated for an Academy Award at least once in their respective careers.
While Howard never reprised his role as Colonel James Rhodes and Bridges was also a one-and-done in the MCU, the list of Oscar winners in the universe has continuously expanded. Actors still currently active in the MCU include Natalie Portman, Brie Larson, Michael Douglas, Lupita Nyong’o, and Marisa Tomei.
Just days prior to the reports that Colman was joining the MCU, Julia Louis-Dreyfus — the all-time leader in Emmy wins by a performer — made a surprising cameo in an episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
READ MORE: Will Marvel’s ‘Spider-Man’ Films Be Added to Netflix Soon?