A new report from The Hollywood Reporter details the behind-the-scenes drama on Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion.
Marvel’s Secret Invasion launched on Disney+ in June 2023. Loosely based on the 2008 Marvel Comics storyline of the same name, the series starred Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, Don Cheadle, and Kingsley Ben-Adir. With an approximate $212 million budget, Secret Invasion was not well received by the majority of fans and critics, as it became the first MCU television series to receive a rotten score (54%) on Rotten Tomatoes.
What happened with Secret Invasions’ production?
According to The Hollywood Reporter’s article, Mr. Robot’s Kyle Bradstreet was fired from Secret Invasion after he spent about a year working on the series’ scripts. Marvel brought on Brian Tucker, who had only ever written 2013’s Broken City with Russell Crowe and Mark Wahlberg, to replace him, while Thomas Bezucha and Ali Selim were hired as directors.
“Details are murky, but what happened next, in the summer of 2022, debilitated the production as factions became entrenched and leaders vied for supremacy during Secret Invasion’s preproduction in London,” the article states.
While Marvel declined to comment directly on the situation, one insider said, “It was weeks of people not getting along, and it erupted.”
With the series falling behind schedule, Jonathan Schwartz, a senior executive and member of a Marvel committee known as “The Parliament,” was sent to the production to get things back on track.
A large portion of Secret Invasion’s crew was then replaced, including line producers, unit production managers, and assistant directors. Bezucha left the series because of scheduling conflicts, while Chris Gary, an executive overseeing the series for Marvel, was reassigned to another project and is now expected to leave the studio when his contract ends.
All six episodes of Marvel’s Secret Invasion are currently streaming on Disney+.
