Secret Invasion director Ali Selim says the recent Disney+ series plants the seeds for some major character developments in future Marvel Cinematic Universe projects.
What MCU movies did Secret Invasion setup?
In an exclusive interview with ScreenRant, Selim discussed the Secret Invasion finale episode and some of the requirements that Marvel Studios gave him regarding the future setups for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle).
“I was given some requirements for the next movie. You have to put Nick Fury up in space. For the next beat, you have to make sure that Rhodey’s legs don’t work for Armor Wars,” Selim said.
MCU fans were surprised to learn that Rhodey spent the last several years under captivity while a female Skrull took his place sometime after the events of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Such a shocking revelation means that the real Rhodey does not know about Thanos, the blip, or the sacrifice of his friend Tony Stark. Long before fans knew of the Rhodey twist, Cheadle teased his character’s arc for the upcoming Armor Wars project in a 2021 interview with ACE Universe.
“Well, I think that the most exciting part is yet to come,” Cheadle said. “I think we don’t really have a super-strong idea of who he is really outside of that, sort of, bubble of the Avengers. Out of necessarily his friendship with Tony. And now he’s going to kind of be untethered from all of that. So it’s an opportunity to really discover who he is in a way that we have not had before; with concentrated time and focus on Rhodey and Rhodey’s journey, and with, hopefully, some stuff about his past. And teeing up some things about his potential future. Who knows how long this Marvel thing goes. It seems kinda unending. We might all die on set one day.”
Meanwhile, Fury will be back in space investigating a strange wormhole linked to the Kree when he re-teams with Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) in the next MCU installment, The Marvels. Fury and Danvers will be joined by Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) as the trio of superheroes struggle to figure out why they switch places when they use their powers. The Marvels is scheduled to hit theaters on Nov. 10.
