The Avengers are MIA, so Nick Fury must fight the invasion — and the Super-Skrull — alone.
On Sunday, Marvel Studios released the trailer for Secret Invasion, the Marvel miniseries coming in June to Disney+. Alongside stars Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Ben Mendelsohn, and franchise newcomers Emilia Clarke and Jenna Coleman, actor Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night in Miami) features as a Skrull rebel leader named Gravik, who was seemingly invented for the Marvel Cinematic Universe... until the trailer hinted otherwise.
With a single shot of Gravik’s arm stretched like Groot’s, tree roots and all, all signs point to Gravik being Super-Skrull, a prominent villain from the comics. While changes have been made in his leap to live-action, Super-Skrull’s new powers hint at a deeper connection to another imminent Marvel release.
Super-Skrull is the codename of the Skrull soldier Kl’rt, who the Skrull emperor recruited to eliminate the Fantastic Four. Through bionic re-engineering, Super-Skrull wields all of their powers, including Reed Richards’ elasticity and the Thing’s raw strength.
But aside from a quick Multiverse of Madness cameo, the Fantastic Four still aren’t an entity in the MCU. It’s therefore unlikely that Super-Skrull will have their powers, but he may have adopted the abilities of known MCU figures instead, including Groot.
Secret Invasion loosely adapts a 2008 Marvel Comics series where Skrulls are revealed to have infiltrated Earth’s governments and the superhero community using their shapeshifting powers. In the Disney+ series, Nick Fury (Jackson) unearths Gravik’s conspiracy to seize control of Earth. With the Avengers disassembled, it seems Gravik has deemed Phase Five a prime opportunity to claim the planet for the Skrulls.
This raises a few big questions, including how Super-Skrull got his powers. It’s possible Skrull scientists spent years studying superheroes, and even secretly getting biological samples, so they could harness their powers. To support this argument, the trailer has a close-up shot of a “specimen sample” collected by the Department of Damage Control. In Spider-Man: Homecoming and Ms. Marvel, fans have seen that the DDC is all too keen on tracking superheroes. Maybe the Guardians of the Galaxy got duped by a Skrull posing as a Damage Control agent, or maybe the federal agency has been infiltrated.
It’s also unclear why Super-Skrull chose the powers he has, assuming choices were on the table. There must be some strategic advantage to emulating Groot; perhaps, like The Thing, Groot’s powers lend Super-Skrull super strength. Alternatively, Groot’s powers might generate clean oxygen. In a feature by Vanity Fair, it’s reported that Gravik and his Skrull followers make camp in a radioactive site, which could still have tainted air. While the Skrulls presumably chose that location to hide from humans, they would need to filter the air to survive, hence, Super-Skrull’s “tree powers.”
With the Fantastic Four’s MCU movie years away, it’s unlikely Secret Invasion will lay the groundwork for their Phase Six debut. But Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will hit theaters over a month before Secret Invasion. Now that we know Super-Skrull has stolen Groot’s powers, Rocket might crack a joke about that time a green shapeshifter tricked them into spitting into a tube.
Secret Invasion hits Disney+ on June 21.
