Captain Marvel promises to have an abundance of fan-pleasing elements. Apart from introducing Brie Larson’s long-awaited heroine for the first time, following her tease at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, and bringing back Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, the movie will also feature the debut appearance of the Skrulls in the MCU.
As fans may know, the Skrulls were initially off-limits to the franchise – they were substituted for the Chitauri in The Avengers – but a Quicksilver-like co-licensing deal was apparently agreed upon with Fox. Now, they’ll appear in Captain Marvel and comic book readers have been wondering if this will set up the Secret Invasion storyline from the source material.
For those unfamiliar, the event revealed that the Skrulls had been infiltrating Earth for years and replacing key figures, including many of the superhero community. The arc featured some big shocks, too, as a few leading heroes were unveiled as shapeshifting aliens in disguise. The opportunity Captain Marvel has to set up this event for, say, Avengers 5 is obvious, as the film will take place in the 1990s. It would definitely hit our heroes hard if the Skrulls had been secretly seeding their way through society for the past twenty-something years.
As suggested by Screen Rant, however, perhaps we shouldn’t be thinking so long term, as Captain Marvel could adapt the Secret Invasion storyline itself. Maybe revealing some of our favorite characters as fakes for all those years would be too big a pill for moviegoers to swallow, so attempting a streamlined version of the plot would be more palatable. You could have all the intrigue and suspense that comes from the Invasion of the Bodysnatchers scenario but without any of the continuity-muddling repercussions.
We might also be wrong to expect any kind of overarching narrative after Avengers 4 wraps up the threat of Thanos. SR reminds us that Marvel chief Kevin Feige has teased that the idea of the MCU having Phases that interlink might not continue once Phase 3 is over, which means big tentpoles like the Avengers movies might become a thing of the past. Screen Rant makes a few other good points as well (which you can read by hitting the link below) and if you ask us, they might be onto something here.
Either way, we’ll find out the truth when Captain Marvel flies into theaters on March 8th, 2019.