In an attempt to manufacture shock value, Secret Invasion threw no less than three major deaths in the faces of viewers to try and create the feeling that anything can happen to anybody at any time, but it didn’t really have the desired effect.
Longtime Marvel Cinematic Universe stalwarts were apoplectic when franchise veteran Maria Hill was unceremoniously shot dead in the premiere, and they were equally upset when Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos was given his canonical marching orders, only for anger of a different kind to emerge when Emilia Clarke’s G’iah was bumped off and then immediately resurrected in a story point that tied directly into a finale that ranks as one of the worst-reviewed comic book adaptations in all of time and space.
Director Ali Selim has wisely been ignoring the backlash, but when reflecting on the controversies of killing off two big names during his stint at the helm in an interview with The Playlist, he also revealed he has no idea when Secret Invasion takes place in the MCU timeline.
“If there was a debate, it happened before I showed up. And that was the big turn at the end of episode one. And my job was to make it emotional and truthful and an appropriate goodbye to her. I don’t know how the conversation began, but I’m sure that there will be ongoing conversations about bringing her back. This story takes place in 2023 – if they made a movie that takes place in 2021, she’ll be there, of course.”
The glaring oversight is that anyone following the official timeline will know that no less of an authority than Marvel Studios itself acknowledged that Secret Invasion unfolds after She-Hulk: Attorney at Law to place it somewhere around mid-2025, a full two years ahead of where the person who directed the show believes it to be, which probably says a lot more about the process than intended.