Secret Invasion, Marvel’s first foray into its 2023 Disney Plus originals slate, is due this summer, and it looks like a complete departure from what we’re used to seeing from the franchise. Gone are the light-hearted overtones that so many of these stories identify themselves with, and in its place looks to be a gritty political thriller that series lead Samuel L. Jackson, who reprises a bread-and-butter role in Nick Fury, will no doubt thrive in, as he always does with Marvel projects.
As Fury delves into the underbelly of the Skrull invasion, which may or may not become less secret if enough wrong events line up, he’ll find himself surrounded by many a friend and foe, plenty of whom we assume will tow the gray area between the two.
That’s not to say for sure that Don Cheadle‘s Rhodey (aka War Machine) will end up being a thorn in Fury’s side this time around, but as the ethos of Secret Invasion becomes more apparent, it’s very possible that we’ll see once-friendly faces adopt darker sides akin to the overtones of the series.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Jackson teased that this isn’t the Rhodey we’re used to in the Avengers films, hinting that the Avenger may have traded in his War Machine armor for a higher ambivalence capacity this time around.
This is a different kind of Rhodey—a political animal and not, you know, a guy who has a special suit. He’s the president’s right-hand man in this. So he’s the guy that makes a lot of decisions—some good, some bad.
The nature of Secret Invasion‘s genre loans itself to flimsy trust, so perhaps we shouldn’t be terribly surprised if Rhodey and Fury end up on opposite sides of a conflict, however jarring that might seem at first. Nevertheless, we’re sure that Cheadle’s stage presence will remain as intact as ever, and given the comparative freedom that Marvel’s television shows are given compared to the films, we daresay he’ll shine even more.
Secret Invasion releases on Disney Plus on June 21.