Marvel’s Secret Invasion is the latest Disney Plus series taking the world by storm — quite literally, as it turns out. The series centers on an alien infiltration story in which the green-skinned Skrulls are masquerading as humans in order to stir chaos and overthrow the order of the world. But you’d be forgiven for thinking the comic book show is actually a documentary, since scattershot sightings of Skrulls have popped up on the internet.
It turns out, however, that seeing one of the pointy-eared aliens in real life is not necessarily a sign that you should probably call the nearest mental health professional, or UFO truther and Blink-182 bandmate Tom DeLonge. Instead, these sightings are actually the result of Marvel’s insanely elaborate marketing for the show.
Much in the same vein as how Paramount planted creepily-grinning audience members at a baseball game last year, for their surprise hit horror film Smile, Disney has taken to the same kind of publicity stunt, apparently.
For instance, a user on Reddit posted a photo of a Skrull staring at his reflection at Chicago’s Cloud Gate sculpture.
Another user noticed an unusual change to the Marvel Unlimited app, with each superhero being replaced with Skrull invaders.
There was even a Skrull creepily sulking in the shadows during the marketing for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 a couple of months back.
Another encounter was shared by the Marvel Entertainment TikTok account in what can only be described as a traffic encounter I would never want to face.
Another stunt over on Twitter had Marvel leaving cryptic messages for fans to piece together, only for it to culminate in a mysterious website password that unlocks a special preview of the show.
We can neither confirm nor deny that Marvel’s TikTok involving face scans of celebrities on the Secret Invasion red carpet might just reveal who the Skrulls are in the show.
New episodes of Secret Invasion drop on Disney Plus every Wednesday.